CONSULAR INVOICE. When exporting goods to certain foreign countries, such as the United States of America, Portugal, Chili, and other South American countries, it is necessary for the exporting merchant to make out an invoice of the goods in a prescribed form, and make 0, declaration before the local consul for the country to which they are to be exported. In the case of exports to the United States, this consular invoice is not required where the invoice price of the goods does Apt exceed 1"P0. The consular invoice has on one side the declaration, and on the other side the invoice of the goods. The object of this formality is to ensure the observance by importers of the laws of the country to which the goods are forwarded, mid especially in regard to duties payable upon imported goods, and to the latter being duly described, priced, and marked with the name of the place of their origin and manu facture. The invoice is usually made out in triplicate ; but where the goods are to be forwarded in bond from the port of entry to some other port in the same country, it is quadruplicated. Of these three (or four) copies, the original is retained by the consul, and the triplicate sent by him to the customs' authorities at the port of entry, whilst the duplicate is handed back, certificated by the consul, to the exporting merchant. If the circumstances of the case require a fourth copy, this is also returned to the merchant. The latter having with all the formalities, forwards to the consignee at the port of entry a copy of the consular invoice, so that he may obtain delivery of the goods, or, when such is the case, see to their being sent on in bond to the other port.
The different countries have different forms of consular invoices, but speaking generally, the requirements common to all would be as follows. The invoice must be signed by the exporting merchant himself, or by a partner in a firm. The packages in which the goods are contained must be marked " Made in Great Britain," and with a general description of the nature of their contents., The invoice must contain, in detail, specific references to the different packages, and must disclose exactly the nature, quantities, and prices of their respective contents. Care should be taken that the invoice contains; (a) A true and full statement' of the time when, the place where, and the per•on from whom the' goods were purchased ; the actual cost thereof, the price actually paid or to be paid therefor, and all charges thereon. (b) A true and full statement of all discounts, bounties;
or drawbacks which have actually been allowed in respect the goods. A confirmation of the invoice will be required in the declaration, and under that form the elporter will be required to declare the place at which the goods were manufactured ; that no different invoice thereof has been or will be furnished to any one ; and that the currency in which the invoice is made out is that wriich was actually paid or is to be paid for the goods. The consul, before certificating the invoice, satisfies himself that the actual marked value or wholesale price of the goods described in the invoice is the same as that obtaining in the principal markets of the country at the time of exportation. IIe will also, if lie thinks it necessary, make a special com munication to his home authorities about the goods, the subject of the invoice, as to their price or generally as may seem proper.
defence and protection of British interests in foreign countries are confided to two classes of agents—diplomatic agents and con suls—between which international law draws a very strict line of demarcation. The first class are, in effect, the political agents of a government—the inter mediaries of sovereigns. Consuls, on the contrary, are authorised admini strative agents. Their mission is limited to the private commercial interest of their states ; political negotiations, the transactions of one government with another, are outside their province altogether. They do not deal the supreme authorities of the place of their residence, only with the secondary. Their place of residence has no reference to political considera tions; it is arbitrarily fixed according to the necessities of commerce. Their appointment is by commission from the Crown, and their title to reside in the foreign country is contained in an carquatur ; a gracious concession of the territorial authority, the refusal of which does not necessarily affect international relations.