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foreign import or transit goods, or are still liable to be so dealt with, or as to which, in case they be goods duty free according to the Tariff, it is shown by certificates of the frontier Customs Offices that they have been imported from abroad, no further duty of any kind must be levied, whether on account of the State or on account of communes or corporations; with the reservation, however, in regard to transit goods, of those home taxes which in any State of the Union are imposed in general upon the further manufacture or other preparation of such productions, whether they be of foreign, native, or union country origin.

2. With regard to Native and Union Country Productions.

1. Upon articles produced within the Union, which only pass through a State of the Union in order to be taken either into another State of the Union or abroad, no home taxes must be levied either on account of the State or on accouut of communes or corporations.

2. Each State of the Union is, indeed, at liberty to continue the home taxes imposed upon the production, the preparation, or the consumption of produce, to alter or to abolish the same, as well as to introduce new taxes of this kind, yet

(a.) Such duties shall only be imposed at present upon the following native productions and those of the same description from Union countries, viz., brandy, beer, vinegar, malt, wine, must, cider, tobacco, meal and other miller's goods, likewise baked goods, meat, preparations of meat, and fat.

(b.) Settled rates shall be agreed upon as far as necessary, the amount whereof shall not be exceeded in adjusting the taxes.

3. With all duties which come hereafter to be levied within the limits of the Union countries, a reciprocal uniformity of dealing is to be observed, so that the production of another State of the Union must on no pretence be taxed higher or in a more burdensome manner than the native production or that of the other Union States. In accordance with this principle, it has been determined as follows:

(a.) States of the Union which levy no home tax upon a native production must not tax the same production from a Union country. Those States, however, which produce no wine are at liberty to levy a duty upon the Union countries' wine, according to the special arrangements that have been made.

(b.) Those States in which home taxes are levied upon an article of consumption on the sale or purchase, or on the consumption of the same, can only demand these taxes in the same manner upon productions of the same sort coming from other States of the Union: on the other hand, they may leave the duty unlevied upon

articles going into other States of the Union, or they may return it wholly or in part.

(c.) Those States which have imposed home taxes upon the production or preparation of an article of consumption may levy the full legal amount of the same upon the introduction of the article from other States of the Union, and may return the same either partly or to the full amount upon its exportation to these States.

It has been specially arranged as to what amounts may, in accordance herewith, be respectively levied and returned in conformity with the present state of legislation in the said States. If any alterations be made hereafter in the now existing rates of taxation for native productions, the Government concerned will communicate thereon with the other Union Governments, showing, at the same time, that the amounts of taxes to be levied upon the Union country productions in consequence of the alteration introduced or contemplated, and which are to be reimbursed on the exportation of the taxed articles, have been adjusted in accordance with the principles agreed

upon.

(d.) Where there exists an Association of several States belonging to the Customs Union, in the same taxation arrangements, these States will be considered as one body in regard also to the right of levying the respective taxes uniformly upon Union country productions.

4. The levying of the home taxes on the Union country articles charged therewith shall, as a rule, take place in the country in which the place of their destination is, unless it is done according to special agreements, either by common collecting stations at the inland frontiers, or in the country from whence the articles are sent, on account of the State entitled to the duty. The necessary regulations for the security of the tax collection, so far as they relate to the roads to be kept to, and the control of the consignment from one State to another, shall only be settled according to reciprocal arrangement, in a way as little restrictive of the traffic as possible; and also when a third State of the Union is passed in the transit, only with the concurrence of that State.

5. The levying of duties on account of communes or corporations, whether in addition to the State taxes or independently, shall only be allowed on articles destined for local consumption, according to the special agreements made for the purpose; and the foregoing stipulation at 2.-2, (b), as well as the general principle enunciated in 2.-3, for reciprocal uniformity in dealing with the productions of other States of the Union, shall be applied just the same as to the State taxes.

Duties must never be levied on tobacco on account of communes or corporations.

6. The Governments of the Union States will reciprocally give each other full information:

(a.) As regards the State taxes now under consideration, of all laws and regulations still in force, and of all ensuing alterations; as well as of the laws and regulations respecting new taxes to be introduced.

(b.) And with respect to the communal, &c., duties, in what places, for what communes or corporations, upon what articles, to what amount, and in what manner they are levied.

XII. Concerning the taxation of sugar prepared from beet within the limits of the Union, the annexed special agreement has been entered into among the Contracting Parties, which is to form a constituent part of the present Treaty, and to be looked upon just the same as if it were itself inserted herein.

The Contracting Parties are further agreed to the effect that if the manufacture of sugar or treacle from other native productions besides beet-from starch, for example-should attain any considerable extent, this manufacture would likewise have to be subjected in all the States of the Union, to a corresponding taxation according to the principles agreed upon for the beet-root sugar tax.

XIII. Highway tolls, or other duties existing in their place, likewise paving, dyke, bridge, and ferry tolls, or under whatever other names such imposts exist, without distinction as to whether they are levied on account of the State or on account of private right, as that of a commune, as well on macadamised roads as on unmacadamised highways, and main roads which form the immediate connection between States of the Union adjoining each other, and upon which there is a greater commercial and passenger traffic, may only be retained, or new ones introduced, according as they are equivalent in amount to the ordinary cost of repairs and main

tenance.

The highway toll fixed in the Prussian Highway Toll Tariff of 1828 shall be looked upon as the highest rate, and shall henceforth be exceeded in none of the Contracting States, with the exception only of highway tolls upon such highways as are, or may be, laid down by corporations, or private persons, or companies, in so far as they are only branch roads, or simply local connections of particular places or districts with the larger towns or with the real main commercial roads.

Instead of the foregoing engagement with regard to the amount of highway tolls, Hanover and Oldenburg only undertake not to increase their present rate of highway tolls.

Special levies of gate-closing and paving tolls, where they still exist upon macadamised roads, shall, in accordance with the foregoing principle, be abolished, and the local paving be so reckoned

in with the length of highway, so that only the highway tolls shall have to be levied according to the general tariff.

XIV. His Majesty the King of Hanover and His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Oldenburg join in the arrangements which have been made between the Governments belonging to the Customs and Commercial Union, for the introduction of an equal system of money, measures, and weights, and they also accede to the General Money Convention concluded between the said Governments, July 30, 1838, as well as to the Money Cartel concluded between the same, October 21, 1845; to the first, indeed, with the declaration that as the 14-thaler standard is already the national money standard in the Kingdom of Hanover and in the Duchy of Oldenburg, they wish to adhere to it still as such.

Accordingly, the stipulations of the previous Customs Union Treaties, whereby,

1. The common Customs Tariff is made out in two chief divisions according to the 14-thaler standard and according to the 244-gulden standard;

2. The silver money of all the Contracting States, with the exception of the small coins, is taken at all the Customs collecting stations of the Union, according to the valuation of 4 thalers for 7 guldens, as settled by the aforesaid Money Convention; while on the contrary,

3. With regard to the gold money, it is left to each Government of the Union to decide whether, and for what value in silver, it is to be taken at the Customs collecting stations of their country;

Also apply to the Kingdom of Hanover and the Duchy of Oldenburg.

The unit for the common Customs weight is formed by the hundredweight (centner = 50 kilogrammes) of the Grand Duchy of Baden and of Hesse, and therefore the declaration, weighing, and paying the duty on articles chargeable with Customs duty by weight, will be exclusively according to that weight throughout the whole Union.

The declaration, measuring, and paying the duty on articles to be charged with duty by measure will continue to be according to the legal national measures in all parts of the Union, until a common measure shall likewise have been agreed upon.

For the rest, the Contracting Governments will direct their attention to the means for introducing that uniformity in the system of weights and measures in their countries, which is so desirable for the promotion of reciprocal traffic.

XV. The water tolls, as also passage dues, on rivers, including those which affect the vessel (recognition dues), are, in the navigation on those rivers to which the stipulations of the Congress of

Vienna or special State Treaties apply, still to be reciprocally paid according to those stipulations, in so far as nothing special has been arranged respecting them.

XVI. From that day forth, when the common Customs regulations of the Union come into full operation, all staple and transfer rights that may still exist shall cease in the Kingdom of Hanover and in the Duchy of Oldenburg, as is already the case in the other territories belonging to the Customs Union, and no one shall be compelled to stop, re-ship, or lay-to, except in the cases where the common Customs regulations or the respective navigation rules allow or prescribe it.

XVII. Canal, lock, bridge, ferry, port, weighing, cranage, and warehouse dues and allowances for arrangements which are intended for the facilitation of traffic, shall only be levied upon the use of actually existing structures, and, as a rule, shall not be increased; and in no case shall they be beyond the amount of the ordinary cost of repairs and maintenance; they shall also be levied from the subjects of the other Contracting States in exactly the same manner as from the native subjects, likewise without reference to the destination of the goods.

If a weighing machine be used only for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of duty, or generally for purposes of official control, no dues are to be charged.

XVIII. The Contracting States will co-operate with each other, in order that by the adoption of uniform principles industry may be promoted, and as free as possible a scope given to the privilege which allows subjects of one State to seek for work and employment in another.

From the time when the present Treaty comes into operation the subjects of one of the Contracting States who carry on trade and business in the dominions of another of them, or who seek employment therein, shall pay no impost to which the native subjects in the same industrial position are not equally liable.

In like manner manufacturers and traders who make purchases merely for the business which they carry on, or travellers who carry with them, not the goods themselves, but only samples of the same for the purpose of soliciting orders, if they have acquired the right of carrying on this business in the State of the Union where they have their abode, by payment of the legal charges, or if they are in the service of native traders or merchants who have done so, shall be liable to pay no further charges on this account in the other States.

In their visits to the markets and fairs for the purposes of trade and for the disposal of their own productions or manufactures in each State of the Union, the subjects of the other Contracting States shall be treated just the same as the native subjects.

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