Letter

Condensed statement showing value of imports and exports at the port of Samana during the years 1875, 1876, and 1877, &c., undated

[Inclosure 3 in dispatch No 17.]

Condensed statement showing value of imports and exports at the port of Samana during the years 1875, 1876, and 1877, &c.

Arrivals of vessels at the port of Samana during the year 1875.

British 28 Danish 3
German 13 Spanish 1
American 12
Dominican 4 Total arrivals 67
Dutch 6
Import duties $50,177 57
Charge 6,032 39
Total 56,209 96

Value of imports estimated at $110,000.

Departures of vessels from the port of Samana during the year 1875.

German 13 Dominican 2
American 8 Italian 1
British 7
Dutch 3 Total 34

Vessels leaving port without taking cargo are not included in this and the following lists of departures:

Export duty $10,957 85
Charges 328 81
Total 11,286 66

Value of exports estimated at $150,000.

Arrivals of vessels at the port of Samana during the year 1876.

British 31 Spanish 2
German 11 Danish 1
American 8 Haytian 1
Dominican 4
Holland 3 Total arrivals 61

Tonnage, 28,568.

Value of imports, $53,275.03.

Import duty $19,655 76
Charges 1,316 99
20,972 75

Departures of vessels from the port of Samana during the year 1876.

German 12 Dominican 2
British 10 Danish 1
American 5
Spanish 2 Total 34
Holland 2

Value of exports, $58,312.86.

Export duty $4,171 98
Charges 87 90
4,259 88

Port charges at Samana, Santo Domingo.—Tonnage, $1 per register ton; entry, 6 cents per register ton; anchorage, 6 cents per register ton; pilotage, 6 cents per register ton; health officer, $4; interpreter, $4; vigia (port signal service), $4. Small vessels pay one-half of the three last charges.

Vessels loading on the coast are required to procure a special permit for so doing, and are charged $1 per ton extra. Steam and other vessels running as regular packets pay no tonnage fees.

In addition to the import and export duties fixed by government, a local municipal tax is also imposed upon many articles, which, taken in connection with the difference between the government standard of values and actual values, will swell the most on imports to about 50 per cent., and on exports to about 8 per cent.

Export duty is generally a specific tax for package, as, for instance, tobacco pays an export duty of 50 cents per seroon, the value of which will vary from $5 to $10.

Samana, October 15, 1877.

BENJAMIN F. CLARK, Vice Commercial Agent

Arrivals of vessels at the port of Samana during the year ending September 30, 1877.

British 27 Danish 3
American 10 Holland 1
German 10 Austrian 1
Dominican 4
Haytian 3 Total arrivals 59
Value of imports $76,000 00
Import duty and port charges 37,981,76
Value of exports for the year ending September 30, 1877, estimated at (more or less) 75,000 00

As the stocks of imports (provisions excepted) are, generally speaking, full, and sales dull, and as only about one-half of the crop of tobacco, &c., had been shipped up to September 30, it may be calculated that the value of the exports for the current year ending December 31, 1877, will exceed the value of the imports by some $25,000.

BENJAMIN F. CLARK,
Vice Commercial Agent.
Sources
FRUS u2014 Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the P View original source ↗
U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the P.