the Decree of its Legislature of 1859, and until a special Treaty is concluded with Great Britain.

Wherefore, let it be executed.

Santa Rosa, May 17th, 1862.

CARLOS MADRID.

VICTORIANO CASTELLANOS.

CUSTOMS UNION CONVENTION between Austria and Modena.-Vienna, October 15, 1857.

[Ratifications exchanged at Vienna, November 24, 1857.]

HIS Imperial and Royal Majesty the Emperor of Austria, &c., and His Royal Highness the Archduke of Austria, Duke of Modena, &c., taking into consideration that the Customs Union Convention concluded between the Empire of Austria and the Duchies of Modena and Parma, on the 9th of August, 1852,* expires on the 31st of October, 1857, and being animated with the desire of upholding the advantages accruing to their subjects from a Customs Union, without, however, maintaining a complete and general uniformity of Customs legislation, have come to the resolution of continuing the Customs Union between their respective States on more simple principles, and for this purpose have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries, that is:

His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, Dr. Karl v. Hock, Knight, Departmental Chief and Vice-President of the Imperial Royal Ministry of Finance, Knight of the Austrian Order of Leopold, Officer of the French Legion of Honour, Knight of the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle, second class, Commander of the Orders of the Crown of Bavaria and of Wirtemberg, of the Order of Albert of Saxony, of the Order of William of Electoral Hesse, of the Order of Lewis of Grand Ducal Hesse, of the Order of the Zähringian Lion of Baden, and of the Orders of Constantine and Lewis of Parma; and

His Royal Highness the Duke of Modena, Count Theodore Bayard de Volo, Chamberlain to His Royal Highness, Knight of the Royal Order of the Eagle of Este, and of the Imperial Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, Knight, second class, of the Russian Order of Stanislaus, Commander of the Portuguese Order of Our Lady of the Conception, Knight, first class, of the Order of Constantine, and decorated with the second class Cross of the Order of St. George of Parma, Resident Minister of His Royal Highness

*Vol. XLII. Page 1236.

the Duke of Modena at the Court of His Imperial and Royal Majesty ;

Who, after exchanging their full powers, and finding them in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles :

ART. I. A Customs Union shall continue to exist between the whole territory of the Dukedom of Modena and the Austrian Customs territory, including the Principality of Liechtenstein.

This Union will be closer in regard to the Dukedom of Modena and the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, than in regard to the rest of the Austrian Customs territory, and the aforesaid Principality.

And a Customs line will also in future separate the territories united in the customs system from the other adjoining States, from the sea, and from the Austrian territory not included in the Customs.

II. There will also be a general Customs Tariff of the Union, and so long as no new tariff is agreed upon, the Austrian Customs tariff of 5th December, 1853, with the alterations made therein by common consent up to the 31st of October, 1857, shall be considered as the General Tariff.

A revision of this General Tariff can only be undertaken by common consent, and in like manner any required alterations in the preambles, in the systematical division, and in the denominations of the tariff can only be introduced by reciprocal agreement.

Nevertheless, in consideration of the particular circumstances of the two said States, each may adopt a Special Tariff for the following goods:

a. For those which are intended exclusively for its own territory; b. For those which are exported immediately from its territory into foreign parts;

c. For those which traverse its territory only, without touching that of the other State.

As the Modenese Tariff lately prepared is already known, that will hold good for the Dukedom of Modena, with limitation of its application to the above mentioned cases. This Special Tariff will come into operation on the 1st of November, 1857.

Austria will for the present adhere to the General Tariff, even in the aforesaid cases.

Each of the two Union States is at liberty to adopt hereafter a new Special Tariff, or to alter the existing one for such cases, in so far as they regard itself; but notice thereof must be given to the other Union State, 3 months before any such modification comes into operation.

III. As, therefore, various rates of importation duties may exist in the two States, it is agreed that foreign goods which are first imported into one and afterwards procced into the other State,

are only to pay the higher of the respective Customs rates, and not the amount of both; so that those goods which at their first importation, either came in duty free, or had only to pay the lower duty, will, on their further transmission into the other State, have to pay either the entire higher duty, or the additional sum to make up the amount thereof, or else the Customs rate of the General Tariff, when the exceptional higher Customs rate does not exceed

the latter.

2. The foreign duty-paying goods here mentioned are also to be free from exportation dues in the intermediate traffic.

3. Moreover foreign goods which, in order to reach that one of the Customs Union States for which they are intended, have to be taken through the territory of the other Union State, are not to be subject to any payment of duty in the latter.

4. And foreign goods which are taken through the territories of both the Union States will only have to pay the transit duty once, and that only in such cases and to such extent as the General Union Tariff prescribes.

5. Native goods of one of the two States, or goods paying duty therein, which are exported abroad through the territory of the other State shall be subject to no transit duty in the latter, and if the General Tariff puts an exportation duty on them, that duty is to be paid in the State from whence they are exported.

6. And native goods of one of the two States which are imported therefrom into the other Union State for consumption, as a rule are subject neither to an export duty in the one, nor to an import duty in the other.

7. These stipulations are also applicable to those goods which are not sent direct, but through an interjacent foreign territory, or by sea, from one Union State into the other, always, however, under the process of escort vouchers.

IV. In order that foreign goods paying duty in one of the two States may, on their importation into the other Union State, be treated as duty free, or admitted on the simple payment of the difference between the exceptional lesser duty of one State and the general one of the Union, or the higher duty of the other State, one of the following circumstances must be shown:

a. That the goods in question, of whatever kind they may be, are such as, though not issued from the official warehouses, are direct therefrom, after payment of duty and being furnished with regular escort vouchers, introduced from one of the Union States into the other;

b. That the goods in question are of undoubted foreign origin, such as are enumerated in the Appendix A;

c. That they are goods bearing an official stamp which, accord

ing to the regulations of the State whence they come, shows that the duty has been paid;

d. That the goods consist of refined sugar in loaves from inland manufactories which are only engaged in refining colonial sugar; and that they always bear the mark respectively prescribed.

The stamps and marks above-mentioned are to be communicated by one State to the other one month before they are brought into use; those already in use are to be considered as known on both sides.

Other foreign goods than those designated in this Article, charged with duty in one State of the Union, are subject to the respective import duties, on their transit into the other State.

V. 1. As the variety of the special duties to be paid in the cases provided for in Article II creates the necessity of divers exceptions from the rule by which the goods produced in one Union State are to be duty free on importation into the other, it has been considered expedient to show in Appendix B what goods are to be treated according to that rule.

2. On the other hand, the Articles enumerated in Appendix C will be admitted at the favouring duties set down therein, and these can only be increased by common agreement.

3. And if the State to whose productions the aforesaid stipulated duties are applicable should grant greater facilities to similar goods generally, or for a length of boundary next the sea, or next the other Italian countries, or next a State not belonging to the Customs Union, those facilities shall ipso facto, and without reciprocity, be simultaneously extended to the like goods of the other Union State.

4. If, moreover, the like goods on their importation from abroad into the State that transmits them, enjoy a favouring duty, which is less than the duty of the General Union Tariff, or than the higher duty of the Special Tariff introduced into the State of their destination on the 1st of November, 1857, then the latter State shall be at liberty, on giving previous notice, instead of treating such goods as duty free, to charge them with an intermediate duty; or, as the case may be, to raise the stipulated intermediate duty, the amount in either case to be equal to the abatements of duty made by the other party. If this right be exercised, four weeks notice of any such alteration must be publicly advertised before it comes into operation.

5. With regard to those articles which neither enjoy exemption from duty, nor a favouring duty, they are subject, on their transit from one Union State into the other, to the fixed ordinary importation duty on goods coming from foreign countries. But all favours in regard to duty on such articles, which one Union State may

hereafter grant to other foreign States, must ipso facto also be extended to the other Union State; provided that,

a. The importation duties in the latter State are not less than the duty of the General Union Tariff, or than the higher duty of the Special Tariff, introduced on the 1st of November, 1857, into the State which has made the aforesaid concession; or that,

b. The Union State, to which the favouring duty is to be extended, on the importation of goods of the aforesaid description into its territory, levies such a duty as, united with the reduced importation duty of the other Union State, shall reach an amount which is not less than the unabated special duty of the other State, or, when no such special duty exists, than the duty of the General Union Tariff.

VI. Silk, rags, timber, and unwrought Carrara marble, are subject even in the intermediate traffic to the saine export duties as in the traffic with the Italian States not belonging to the Customs Union.

VII. Exemption from duty on the goods described in the foregoing Articles IV and V, as subject to an importation duty in the intermediate traffic, will also be reciprocally granted in the following

cases:

a. On goods (excepting articles of consumption) which are capable of permanent marking, or can be so exactly described as to ensure their identification, and are brought from one Union State to the fairs and markets of the other on chance of sale; and on goods (capable of permanent marking or of exact description) which are not yet brought into free traffic, but are retained in the official warehouses under the supervision of the Customs authorities, when sent from one Union State into the other on chance of sale; in both cases in so far as such goods are brought back unsold within the period to be previously settled according to Appendix D ;

b. On cattle taken to the markets of the other State, and brought back thence unsold;

c. On corn for grinding, rice for husking, wax for bleaching, and bells for recasting;

d. On articles capable of a permanent marking which shall ensure the undoubted recognition of their identity, when they are taken from one Union State to the other for repair, working, or improvement, and after the aforesaid purposes have been effected, the said articles are taken back again with observance of the regulations prescribed for such matters.

The exemption from duty conceded in a, b, and d, is, however, on condition that the essential quality of the goods therein named be not altered, and that the identity of the articles sent out and brought back again be undoubted.

VIII. The High Contracting Parties will allow both the foreign