THE  INSPECTORATE  OF  CUSTOMS  365
manifested  goods—for  a  “  false  manifest  ”—she  may  be  fined
after  joint  investigation  and  decision  by  the  Customs  and
the  Consul  concerned,  the  limit  of  fine  being  Tls.500.
The  third  remedy  is  in  the  withdrawal  of  an  extra-treaty
concession  made  by  the  Customs  ;  the  treaties  were  made
to  fit  the  old  sailing-ship  conditions,  and  it  is  only  in  the
modern  steamer  procedure  that  any  means  can  be  found
for  enforcing  proper  preventive  measures,  by  the  withdrawal ­
  of  the  privilege  of  clearing  before  the  payment  of
all  import  duties  on  the  ship’s  cargo,  whereby  the  Customs
are  often  forced  to  use  a  steam  hammer  to  crack  a  nut.
Against  the  merchant  the  Customs  have  even  less  power,
and,  in  effect,  any  penalties  for  false  declaration  are  enforced
against  the  incriminated  goods,  and  never  against  the
offending  merchant  :  to  confiscate  an  importer’s  goods
and  to  fine  him  in  addition  for  a  breach  of  Customs  regulations, ­
  is  unheard  of  in  China.  This  arises  partly  from  the
very  considerable  degree  of  protection  accorded  to  foreign
merchants  by  treaty,  and  partly  from  the  fact  that  there
is  no  competent  tribunal  before  which  a  revenue  case  can
be  carried  ;  the  Chinese  territorial  courts  are  ruled  out,
the  Consul  is  necessarily  the  advocate  of  his  national,  and
the  Commissioner  of  Customs  is  a  party  to  the  case.
Goods,  having  paid  their  import  duty,  are  in  most
countries  free  to  go  anywhere  ;  in  China  movement  is  taxed
at  every  point,  and  documentary  protection  must  be  accorded ­
  to  imports  at  every  point.  This  protection  is  given
to  foreign  imports  at  any  treaty  port  without  further
payment,  provided  that  the  original  payment  within  three
years  past  can  be  proved  ;  and  so  valuable  is  this  protection ­
  that  Chinese  produce  may  be  shipped  to  a  foreign
port  (e.g.  Hongkong)  and  back  to  China,  paying  once  duty
on  export  and  once  duty  on  import,  and  a  half  duty  on
transport  inland,  and  show  a  balance  of  profit  over  transport
from  the  place  of  production  direct  to  another  place,  perhaps
only  a  couple  of  hundred  miles  away.  At  Shanghai  the  great
volume  of  the  re-export  trade  has  caused  the  institution
of  a  system  of  “  Importer’s  Passes,”  by  which  the  importer