Item JM-AIY/OttomanRegisters/Vol3/p40a/item279 - Warning to taxfarmer and guarantor in charge of Jerusalem – Jaffa road (with important details on functioning of tax farming), 24 May 1899 (Gregorian calendar) - 13 Mayîs 1315 (Ottoman fiscal calendar (Rumi)

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For the attention of the tax farmer for Jaffa-Jerusalem carriage road and his guarantor Shukrî Effendi al-Nashâshîbî and Hasan Effendi al-Nashâshîbî : In accordance with the policy contract of the bid endorsed by both of you and upheld at the council, [we may remind you of] two items that you should observe concerning the fees of Jaffa-Jerusalem carriage road for the first of Rajab (1)315. [Firstly] you should pay two fees for each month out of twenty four fees [for the whole year], namely one fee for every fifteen days that amounts to five thousand piasters out of the total of one hundred and twenty thousand piasters for the whole year of tax farming is to be paid on time and not [even] a para of the fees is to be postponed for any reason. [Secondly], no excuse is accepted for what might happen and causes losses. As the month of Nîsân has already passed without paying the two decided fees, and as the fee due on the fifteenth of Mâyis is approaching, [it has been found necessary] to warn you by this memorandum written by the scribes of Jerusalem’s court of first instance, [first] to accelerate payment what you owe of the two fees in addition to the interest confirmed by the rules for the damage caused by postponing the payment; and then to pay each fee hitherto on time in accordance with conditions written above. As for the tax farmer’s claim that the government of Jaffa and its municipal council have prevented him of putting [officers/ guardians] to forbid the smuggling of animals using the carriage road, this is a matter under inquiry with the district and the government of Jaffa. Nonetheless, this claim does not require postponing the payment in accordance with the conditions written above. Accordingly, this memorandum was written in two copies and is to be upheld immediately by the respectable Othmân Nurî Effendi al-Khâlidî, the scribe of the court of first instance in order to be able to deliver them to the council signed by the tax farmer and his guarantor. Therefore, after the warning, and if the tax farmer and his guarantor pay the due fees on time, the suitable procedures confirmed by the rules will take effect.
Written on the 13th of Mâyis (1)315 (24th of May 1899).
[No signatures]

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