[Untitled], September 14, 1866

[Untitled]

The value of the convention, the text of which is given above, will be at once understood by all, and especially appreciated by the creditors of the new Mexican expire.

In consequence of this act, one half of all the revenue derived from general and special import and export duties on all merchandise entering Mexico, and on silver bars and other indigenous productions sent abroad, as well as of the additional duties of internacion and of contra-registro, will be paid over into the French treasury.

Our readers will doubtless remember that the duty de contra-registro is a registration tax, and that of internacion a clearage tax on goods going from the custom-house into the interior of the country. This latter duty was formerly collected only at the place where the goods sent inland left the seaports’ circonscription, but now a recent regulation from Emperor Maximilian makes it payable on all goods the moment they arrive. The duty of internacion is 15 per cent., not ad valorem, but on the entrance duty imposed on the goods; it is a sort of tithe.

A third additional duty, this latter amounting to 20 per cent., shall also be applied to complete the quota of one half which is granted us, but only when it shall be free from existing liens; it is the tax called majoras materiales—(material improvements.) This tax is actually pledged for a little while yet as a subsidy for the benefit of the railroad company from Vera Cruz to Mexico.

The same state of things occurs concerning the duties of export only, not of import, through the ports of the Pacific—at Acapulco, Mazatlan, San Bias, and Guayamas. The revenues from that source are applied partly to the payment of international debts, and partly as a subsidy for the railroad which is hereafter to connect the capital with the Pacific ocean.

Last year the seaport customs produced sixty-five millions. The right to collect one-half of them is, therefore, no inconsiderable object, and such resources will be sufficient to meet many of the engagements of the Mexican government.

These engagements are recited in the second article of the convention, as follows:

The funds collected through the delegation [a lien] agreed on in the preceding article shall be applied—

1. To the payment of the interests, the sinking fund, and the payment of all the obligations [bonds] arising from the two loans contracted in 1864 and 1865 by the Mexican government.

2. To the payment of the interests, at the rate of 3 per cent. of the sum of two hundred and sixteen millions of francs, of which the Mexican government has acknowledged itself debtor by the Miramar convention, and of all the sums subsequently advanced by the French treasury, for whatever purpose. The amount of this debt, now estimated by approximation at two hundred and fifty millions of francs, shall be hereafter definitively established.

This assignment of revenue for the benefit of creditors is but an appropriation of securities; it is not a payment liberating the Mexican government from all indebtedness towards its various creditors. Hence the rights of holders of bonds of both loans, as well as those of the French government, are expressly reserved.

Should, on the other hand, the funds thus received in consequence of increasing international commerce exceed the interest to be paid by the Mexican government, the surplus shall be applied to a gradual cancelling of its indebtedness to the French government.

Mexico having surrendered the right to diminish henceforth the import and export duties, this assignment has a fixed basis which cannot be removed, but which can only fluctuate in consequence of an increase or a decrease in the commercial movement which has been steadily on the increase since our occupancy.

There is no reason to fear that any circumstances, foreseen or unforeseen, can either suppress or delay this levying on the revenue, as it is to be effected in the two principal ports of import and export at Vera Cruz and Tampico by special agents placed under the protection of the French flag, and most likely French subjects.

This measure will not only prevent any of the duties collected being diverted from its proper use to our loss; it will also be beneficial to the Mexican government; for our agents, better accustomed to administrative regularity, endowed with more vigilance and energy, and more skilful in ferreting out and baffling fraud, will watch with greater care the collecting of the revenue.

In all the ports except Vera Cruz and Tampico the French consular agents shall visé the returns of the situation of the custom-houses of their district.

The agents appointed collectors of customs shall be paid by the Mexican government; but, in order to prevent their salary ever becoming a burden on the imperial treasury, the latter shall contribute towards it in case of insufficiency, but in the proportion of one-twentieth of the amount collected.

The Emperor Napoleon III shall alone and absolutely decide how long the agents appointed collectors shall remain at Vera Cruz and Tampico.

This convention, as we thus see, is a new proof of the imperial government’s solicitude for the interests involved in the Mexican question. It insures to the holders of bonds a serious guarantee, since it is placed under the watchful care of the agents and representatives of France, and under the strong shield of the national flag.