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in one series as soon as possible after the signature of this Agreement, and after issue of the Loan, amounts of the proceeds of the Loan received shall be notified. to the Board, and shall be placed to the credit account of the Board with and in the Bank to the disposal of the Board.

The above funds may be transferred, at the request of the Board from time to time, either to China or any other country or countries, or may be deposited temporarily in Japan to earn interest, such transactions being always effected through the Bank.

ARTICLE 13.-The Bank agrees to advance to the Board within one month after and from the date of signing this Agreement a sum not exceeding two million yen (Y2,000,000), for the service of which interest at the rate of six per cent (6%) per annum shall be paid commencing from the date of such advance, and it is further agreed and understood that repayment of the sum so advanced with the interest accrued thereon shall be made in full and at once out of the proceeds of the first instalment of subscriptions to this Loan.

All transactions connected with transferring, depositing, or disposal of this fund shall be done according to the second clause of Article 12 of this Agreement.

ARTICLE 14.-This Agreement is signed by the President of the Board of Posts and Communications under the authority of an Imperial Edict, dated the twenty-third day of the second month of the third year of Hsuan Tung, corresponding to the twenty-third day of the third month of the forty fourth year of Meiji (March 23, 1911), which will be officially communicated by the Waiwupu to the Minister for Japan in Peking.

ARTICLE 15.-Five sets of this Agreement are executed in English, Chinese and Japanese, three sets to be retained by the Imperial Government of China and two by the Bank. In the event of any doubt arising as to the interpretation of the contract the English text shall rule.

SIGNED AT PEKING by the contracting parties this twenty-fourth day of the second month of the third year of Hsuan Tung corresponding to the twentyfourth day of the third month of the Forty-fourth Year of Meiji (March 24th, 1911).

[Chinese Signature & Seal] [Japanese Signature & Seal]

SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS OF INTEREST AND REPAYMENTS OF PRINCIPAL.

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NUMBER 1911/2.

FRANCE (Banque de l'Indo-Chine), GERMANY (Deutsch-Asiatische Bank), GREAT BRITAIN (Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation), UNITED STATES (American Group) AND CHINA.

Chinese currency reform and industrial development loan Agreement.*—April 15, 1911.

Agreement made between the Board of Finance, acting under imperial edict on behalf of the Imperial Chinese Government, of the one part, and Messrs. J. P. Morgan & Co., Messrs. Kuhn, Loeb & Co., the First National Bank, and the National City Bank, all of New York, constituting the American group, the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank, the Banque de l'Indo-Chine, hereinafter called the "banks," of the other part, witnesseth, as follows:

Whereas the Imperial Chinese Government desiring to reform, and to render uniform its currency system in accordance with a program which has been prepared, and to undertake certain industrial enterprises in Manchuria, proposes to negotiate a loan for these purposes and to evidence the same by the issue of Imperial Chinese Government sinking fund gold bonds, hereinafter called the "bonds," in an aggregate principal amount not exceeding ten million pounds sterling (£10,000,000) in manner and form as hereinafter set forth; and

Whereas the preliminary agreement providing for the negotiation of this final agreement for the loan for the purposes above mentioned was duly signed by the Board of Finance with the American group at Peking on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth moon of the second year of Hsuan T'ung, being the 27th day of October, 1910, western calendar, and was subsequently ratified by imperial edict; and

Whereas the American group being now associated with the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank, and the Banque de l'Indo-Chine, the Imperial Chinese Government has consented that these banks shall, with the American group, participate in the issue of the loan hereunder; therefore it is agreed as follows:

ARTICLE I. The preliminary agreement hereinbefore mentioned shall be considered binding only as interpreted by this agreement.

ARTICLE II.-The Imperial Chinese Government authorizes the banks to issue a 5 per cent sinking fund gold loan, for an aggregate amount of ten million pounds sterling. The loan shall be of the date on which the bonds are issued to the public, and shall be called the Imperial Chinese Government 5 per cent currency reform and industrial development sinking fund gold loan of 1911.

ARTICLE III. The proceeds of the loan shall be used and applied as hereinafter determined, for the following purposes:

Text as printed by the Department of State. Printed also in China Year Book, 1912, p. 288. See Note to this document, post, p. 851.

(a) To provide funds for the reform of, and to render uniform, the Imperial Chinese currency system.

(b) To provide funds for the promotion and extension of industrial enterprises in the three Manchurian Provinces.

ARTICLE IV. This loan shall constitute a direct liability and obligation of the Imperial Chinese Government, which hereby pledges its good faith and credit for the punctual payment of the principal and interest of the loan and for the performance of all the undertakings on its part herein assumed.

ARTICLE V.-All advances made under the terms of sections 4, 5, and 6 of Article VIII hereunder and the payments of interests and the repayments of principal of this loan, and all other amounts required for, or incident to, the service of the loan, shall be and hereby are made a first charge on the following

revenues:

(a) Duties on tobacco and spirits in the three Manchurian Provinces, amounting to one million Kuping taels (K. P. tls. 1,000,000) per annum.

(b) Production tax in the three Manchurian Provinces, amounting to seven hundred thousand Kuping taels (K. P. tls. 700,000) per annum.

(c) Consumption tax in the three Manchurian Provinces, amounting to eight hundred thousand Kuping taels (K. P. tls. 800,000) per annum.

(d) Newly added surtax upon salt of all the Provinces of China (authorized by imperial edict in the fifth moon of the thirty-fourth year of His Imperial Majesty Kuang Hsü), amounting to two million five hundred thousand Kuping taels (K. P. tls. 2,500,000) per annum.

The revenues above pledged amount to five million Kuping taels (K. P. tls. 5,000,000) per annum.

2. The above provincial revenues are hereby declared to be free from all other loans, liens, charges or mortgages.

3. Should the above mentioned revenues be insufficient to meet the payments of interest and repayments of principal and all other charges on due dates, the Imperial Chinese Government will, first from Manchurian and then, if necessary, from other sources, supply the balance required to meet such payments.

4. So long as the principal and interest of this loan and all other charges are regularly paid there shall be no interference with the revenues herein pledged, but if principal and/or interest be in default at due date, then, after a reasonable period of grace, the revenues above pledged, or such part thereof as may be sufficient to provide and pay the amounts stated shall forthwith be transferred to, and shall be administered by, the Imperial Maritime Customs for the account and in the interest of the bondholders.

5. So long as this loan shall remain unredeemed it shall have priority, both as regards principal and interest, by way of a lien or charge upon the above revenues over all future loans, charges or mortgages which may be charged on the aforesaid revenues. No loan, mortgage or other charge shall be raised or created which shall take precedence of, or be on an equality with, this loan, or which shall in any manner lessen or impair its security charged upon the aforesaid revenues; and any future loan, charge or mortgage charged on the said provincial revenues, shall be made subject to this loan, and it shall

be so expressed in every agreement for every such future loan, charge or mortgage.

6. In the event of the Imperial Chinese Government, during the currency. of this loan, entering upon definite arrangements for the revision of the customs tariff, accompanied by stipulations for the decrease or abolition of likin, it is hereby agreed on the one hand that such revision shall not be barred by the fact that this loan is secured by the above-named revenues, and on the other hand that the revenues required to provide the security of this loan shall neither be abolished nor decreased, except by previous arrangement with the banks and then only in so far as an equivalent satisfactory to the banks is substituted therefor in the shape of a first lien or charge upon other revenues consequent upon such revision.

ARTICLE VI.-The banks are authorized to issue to the subscribers to the loan, gold bonds for the total amount of the loan for such amounts as shall be determined by the banks. The form and language of the bonds shall be settled by the banks in consultation with the Board of Finance or the Imperial Chinese ministers in Washington, London, Berlin or Paris.

2. The bonds shall be printed and/or engraved and shall bear the facsimile of the signature of the president of the Imperial Chinese Board of Finance, and of his seal of office, in order to dispense with the necessity of his signing them all in person, and the Imperial Chinese minister in Washington and/or London and/or Berlin, and/or Paris at the option of the banks, shall, previous to the issue of the bonds, put his seal upon each bond, with a facsimile of his signature as a proof that the issue and sale of the bonds are duly authorized by, and binding upon, the Imperial Chinese Government.

3. The representatives of the banks in New York, London, Berlin and Paris, as the case may be, shall countersign the bonds as agents for the issue of the loan.

ARTICLE VII.—All details necessary for the prospectus of the loan and connected with the payment of interest and repayment of principal of the loan, and with the withdrawing of bonds for redemption, not herein explicitly provided for, shall be left to the arrangement of the banks in consultation with the Imperial Chinese ministers in Washington, London, Berlin and Paris.

2. The banks are hereby authorized to issue the prospectus of the loan as soon as possible after the fulfillment of the conditions in Article VIII hereunder made precedent to the issue of the loan, and the Imperial Chinese Government will instruct the Imperial Chinese ministers in Washington, London, Berlin and Paris to cooperate with the banks in any matters requiring conjoint action, and to sign the prospectus of the loan.

ARTICLE VIII.-On the date of the signature of this agreement the Board of Finance shall hand to the banks :—

(a) The regulations for the unification of the currency on a silver basis," authorized by imperial edict, hereinafter called the program of currency reform.

(b) A statement showing in what amounts the proceeds of the loan are to

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