13.11. 11. Of Confiscations.
With respect to confiscations, there is one
thing very particular that, contrary to the general custom, they are
more severe in Europe than in Asia. In Europe not only the merchandise,
but even sometimes the ships and carriages, are confiscated; which is
never practised in Asia. This is because in Europe the merchant can have
recourse to magistrates, who are able to shelter him from oppression; in
Asia the magistrates themselves would be the greatest oppressors. What
remedy could a merchant have against a pasha who was determined to
confiscate his goods?
The prince, therefore, checks his own power, finding himself under
the necessity of acting with some kind of lenity. In Turkey they raise
only a single duty for the importation of goods, and afterwards the
whole country is open to the merchant. Smuggling is not attended with
confiscation or increase of duty. In China
[7]
they never look into the
baggage of those who are not merchants. Defrauding the customs in the
territory of the Mogul is not punished with confiscation, but with
doubling the duty. The princes of Tartary, who reside in towns, impose
scarcely any duty at all on the goods that pass through their
country.
[8]
In Japan, it is true, to cheat the customs is a capital
crime; but this is because they have particular reasons for prohibiting
all communication with foreigners; hence the fraud
[9]
is rather a contravention of the laws made for the security of the government than
of those of commerce.
Footnotes
[7]
Father Du Halde, ii, p. 37.
[8]
"History of the Tartars," part III, p. 290.
[9]
Being willing to trade with foreigners without having any
communication with them, they have pitched upon two nations for that
purpose — the Dutch for the commerce of Europe, and the Chinese for
that of Asia; they confine the factors and sailors in a kind of prison,
and lay such a restraint upon them as tires their patience.
