Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1878

No. 476.
Mr. Evarts to Mr. Mantilla.

Department of State,
Washington, November 2, 1877.

Sir: Referring to your late notes touching the duties on tonnage of Spanish vessels levied in the ports of the United States, I have the honor to advise you that information having been received from the United States minister in Spain that no differential duties are levied in any Spanish port, peninsular or colonial, on American vessels, and such information having been communicated to the Secretary of the Treasury, that officer has issued a circular upon the subject, three copies of which I inclose herewith.

Accept, sir, &c.,

WM. M. EVARTS.

[Inclosure.]

Circular supplemental to circular 118, of September 7, 1877.

Treasury Department, Office of the Secretary,
Washington, D. C., October 29, 1877.

tonnage-tax of 30 cents per ton to be exacted on spanish vessels.

To collectors of customs and others:

The following telegram to the Department of State, from the minister of the United States at Madrid, dated October 27, 1877, has been communicated to this department, viz:

“The minister of state assures me that no differential duties are levied in any Spanish port, peninsular or colonial, on American vessels.”

In pursuance of this assurance that American vessels in Spanish ports pay no other or higher duties on tonnage than Spanish vessels, hereafter only 30 cents per ton tonnage-tax will be collected on Spanish vessels in American ports.

Collectors of customs are authorized and directed to transmit certified statements in all cases of the exaction at their ports, under protest, of tonnage-tax on Spanish vessels, at the rate of 80 cents per ton, in order that the excess of 50 cents per ton may be refunded.

JOHN SHERMAN,
Secretary.