SARDINIA.

1838.a

TREATY OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION.

Concluded November 26, 1838; ratification advised by the Senate March 2, 1839; ratified by the President March 8, 1839; ratifica tions exchanged March 18, 1839; proclaimed March 18, 1839.

The United States of America and His Majesty the King of Sardinia, desirous of consolidating the relations of good understanding which have hitherto so happily subsisted between their respective States and of facilitating and extending the commercial intercourse between the two countries, have agreed to enter into negotiations for the conclusion of a treaty of commerce and navigation, for which purpose the President of the United States has conferred full powers on Nathaniel Niles, their Special Agent near His Sardinian Majesty, and His Majesty the King of Sardinia has conferred like powers on the Count Clement Solar de la Marguerite, Grand Cross of the Military and Religious Order of S. Maurice and S. Lazarus, of Isabella the Catholic of Spain, and Knight of the Order of Christ, his First Secretary of State for the Foreign Affairs;

And the said Plenipotentiaries having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have concluded and signed the following articles:

ARTICLE I.

There shall be between the territories of the high contracting parties a reciprocal liberty of commerce and navigation. The inhabitants of their respective States, shall mutually have liberty to enter the ports and commercial places of the territories of each party, wherever

This treaty was superseded by the treaty of 1871 with Italy (p. 969), Sardinia having become merged into that Kingdom.

foreign commerce is permitted. They shall be at liberty to sojourn and reside in all parts whatsoever of said territories in order to attend to their affairs, and they shall enjoy to that effect the same security and protection as the natives of the country wherein they reside, on condition of their submitting to the laws and ordinances there prevailing.

ARTICLE II.

Sardinian vessels arriving either laden or in ballast in the ports of the United States of America, and reciprocally vessels of the United States arriving either laden or in ballast in the ports of the dominions of His Sardinian Majesty, shall be treated on their entrance, during their stay, and at their departure, upon the same footing as national vessels coming from the same place, with respect to the duties of tonnage, light-houses, pilotage, and port charges, as well as to the fees and perquisites of public officers and other duties or charges of whatever kind or denomination, levied in the name or to the profit of the Government, the local authorities, or of any private establishment whatsoever.

ARTICLE III.

All kind of merchandise and articles of commerce either the produce of the soil or the industry of the United States of America or of any other country, which may be lawfully imported into the ports of the dominions of Sardinia in Sardinian vessels, may also be so imported in vessels of the United States of America without paying other or higher duties or charges of whatever kind or denomination levied in the name or to the profit of the Government, the local authorities or of any private establishment whatsoever, than if the same merchandise or produce had been imported in Sardinian vessels. And reciprocally all kind of merchandise and articles of commerce, either the produce of the soil, or of the industry of the dominions of Sardinia or of any other country, which may be lawfully imported into the ports of the United States, in vessels of the said States, may also be so imported in Sardinian vessels, without paying other or higher duties or charges, of whatever kind or denomination, levied in the name or to the profit of the Government, the local authorities, or of any private establishment whatsoever, than if the same merchandise or produce had been imported in vessels of United States of America.

ARTICLE IV.

To prevent the possibility of any misunderstanding, it is hereby declared that the stipulations contained in the two preceding articles are to their full extent applicable to Sardinian vessels and their cargoes arriving in the ports of the United States of America, and reciprocally to vessels of the said States and their cargoes arriving in the ports of the dominions of Sardinia, whether the said vessels clear directly from the ports of the country to which they respectively belong, or from the ports of any other foreign country.

ARTICLE V.

All kind of merchandise and articles of commerce, which may lawfully be exported from the ports of the United States of America in

national vessels, may also be exported therefrom in Sardinian vessels without paying other or higher duties or charges, of whatever kind or denomination, levied in the name or to the profit of the Govern-; ment, the local authorities, or of any private establishment whatsoever, than if the same merchandise or articles of commerce had been exported in vessels of the United States of America. And reciprocally all kind of merchandise and articles of commerce which may be lawfully exported from the ports of the Kingdom of Sardinia in national vessels may also be exported there from in vessels of the United States of America without paying other or higher duties or charges, of whatever kind or denomination, levied in the name or to the profit of the Government, the local authorities, or of any private establishment whatsoever, than if the same merchandise or articles of commerce had been exported in Sardinian vessels.

ARTICLE VI.

No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the United States of any article the produce or manufacture of Sardinia, and no higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the Kingdom of Sardinia of any article the produce or manufacture of the United States, than are or shall be payable on the same article being the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country. Nor shall any prohibition be imposed on the importation or exportation of any article the produce of or the manufacture of the United States or of Sardinia, to or from the ports of the United States, or to or from the ports of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which shall not equally extend to all other nations.

ARTICLE VII.

It is expressly understood and agreed that the preceding articles do not apply to the coastwise navigation of either of the two countries, which each of the two high contracting parties reserves exclusively to itself.

ARTICLE VIII.

No priority or preference shall be given directly or indirectly by either of the high contracting parties, nor by any company, corporation, or agent acting in their behalf, or under their authority, in the purchase of any article of commerce lawfully imported on account of, or in reference to, the character of the vessel, whether it be of the one party or the other, in which such article was imported, it being the true intent and meaning of the contracting parties that no distinction or difference whatever shall be made in this respect.

ARTICLE IX.

If either party shall hereafter grant to any other nation any particular favor in commerce or navigation, it shall immediately become common to the other party, freely where it is freely granted to such other nation, or on yielding the same or an equivalent compensation, when the grant is conditional.

ARTICLE X.

Vessels of either of the high contracting parties arriving on the coasts of the other, but without the intention to enter a port, or having entered not wishing to discharge the whole or any part of their cargoes, shall enjoy in this respect the same privileges and be treated in the same manner as the vessels of the most favored nations.

ARTICLE XI.

When any vessel belonging to either of the contracting parties or to their citizens or subjects, shall be wrecked, foundered, or otherwise, suffer damage on the coasts or within the dominions of the other, there shall be given to such vessel and all persons on board every aid and protection, in like manner as is usual and customary to vessels of the nation where such shipwreck or damage happens; and such shipwrecked vessel, its merchandise, and other effects, or their proceeds, if the same shall have been sold, shall be restored to their owners, or to those entitled to receive them, upon the payment of such costs of salvage as would have been paid by national vessels in the same cir

cumstances.

ARTICLE XII.

Sardinian merchant-vessels being forced from stress of weather or other unavoidable causes to enter a port of the United States of America, and reciprocally merchant-vessels of the said States entering the ports of His Sardinian Majesty from similar causes, shall be exempt from port charges and all other duties levied to the profit of the Government, in case the causes which have rendered such entry necessary are real and evident, provided such vessel does not engage in any commercial operation while in port, such as loading and unloading merchandise, it beeing understood, nevertheless, that the unloading and reloading rendered necessary for the repair of the said vessel shall not be considered an act of commerce affording ground for the payment of duties, and provided also that the said vessel shall not prolong her stay in port beyond the time necessary for the repair of her damages.

ARTICLE XIII.

Considering the remoteness of the respective countries of the two high contracting parties, and the uncertainty resulting there from with respect to the various events which may take place, it is agreed that a merchant-vessel, belonging to either of them, which may be bound to a port supposed at the time of its departure to be blockaded, shall not however be captured or condemned for having attempted a first time to enter said port, unless it can be proved that said vessel could and ought to have learned during its voyage that the blockade of the place in question still continued. But all vessels which, after having been warned off once, shall, during the same voyage, attempt a second time to enter the same blockaded port during the continuance of the said blockade, shall then subject themselves to be detained and condemned.

ARTICLE XIV.

All articles of commerce the growth or manufacture of the United States of America, and the products of their fisheries, with the exception of salt, gunpowder, and tobacco manufactured for use, shall be permitted to pass in transitu from the free port of Genoa through the territories of His Sardinian Majesty to any point of the inland frontier of the said territories; and, vice versa, all articles of commerce coming from any one point of the Sardinian inland frontier, destined for the United States, shall be permitted to pass the territories of His Sardinian Majesty to the free port of Genoa without being liable to the payment of any duty whatever levied in the name or to the profit of the Government, the local authorities, or of any private establishment whatsoever, other than such as are required to meet the expenses of the necessary precautionary measures against smuggling, which precautionary measures to be observed in regard to transit to the frontier shall be the same whether the said articles of commerce are imported by the vessels of the one or of the other of the high contracting parties. But if peculiar circumstances or considerations should render the re-establishment of transit duties necessary on the said articles of commerce directed to any one point of the Sardinian frontier, the Sardinian Government, in reserving to itself the full right to establish such duty, engages to notify to the Government of the United States such determination six months before any such transit duty shall be exacted. It is also unders[t]ood that all articles of commerce imported directly from the United States of America shall be taken and considered as the products of the said States, and shall be entitled equally and in like manner, with the exceptions above mentioned in the present article, to a free transit through the territories of His Sardinian Majesty.

ARTICLE XV.

The two high contracting parties reciprocally grant to each other the liberty of having each in the ports and other commercial places of the other, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Commercial Agents of their own appointment, who shall enjoy the same privileges, powers, and exemptions as those of the most favored nations. But if any of such Consuls shall exercise commerce, they shall be subjected to the same laws and usages to which the private individuals of their nation, or subjects or citizens of the most favored nations are subject in the same places, in respect to their commercial transactions.

ARTICLE XVI.

It is especially understood that whenever either of the two contracting parties shall select for a consular agent to reside in any port or commercial place of the other party a subject or citizen of this last, such Consul or Agent shall continue to be regarded, notwithstanding his quality of a foreign Consul, as a subject or citizen of the nation to which be belongs, and consequently shall be submitted to the laws and regulations to which natives are subjected in the place of his residence. This obligation, however, shall in no respect embarrass the exercise of his consular functions, or affect the inviolability of the consular archives.