Of the coinage of India—Rupees, pagodas, &c., and their value—Of the money current among the Europeans and its value—Of the fanams, boeseroks, and cowries.
SIR,—As you have the superintendence of the States’ mint, and the charge of that coinage which is used for the service of the world-famous Dutch trade as well as for replenishing the public treasury, you will not be displeased at my addressing to you in the present letter an account of the coins used by the East Indians.
Their current money is of three kinds, the European money, the Heathen, and the Moorish : for, though there are many Jews here, yet as they possess no State of their own, so neither have they any peculiar coinage.
The Moorish pieces which are used in trade throughout India, are the Rupees, which consist of gold and silver, and whole and half rupees. They are stamped with letters on both sides : for the Moors have such a horror of all figures and images that they will not endure even the likeness of a beast—flowers only being admissible. This is soon discovered by traders, who consequently take care not to offer them wares of China or silk having patterns in which animals are introduced. And yet I have seen a set of gold rupees, twelve in number, bearing the twelve signs of the zodiac; together with a small gold penny bearing the likeness of a man, and said to be a representation of Mahomet. Nobody could tell me when or where this last piece was struck : but with regard to the rupees, it is well-known that they were coined by order of a famous Mogul empress, who, possessing entire sway over the mind of the great Mogul, and being immoderately ambitious, desired above all things to perpetuate her name and glory by some extraordinary deed. Nothing was more suitable for this purpose than to strike a new coin : so she issued orders that throughout all parts of her extensive domains, stamps bearing the twelve signs of the zodiac should be prepared under the care of certain of her faithful servants. She then exerted all her female arts of cajolery to induce the monarch to grant her absolute sway for one single day. This she obtained under certain conditions; and when the day arrived, she despatched swift messengers in all directions with orders that the rupees should be immediately struck, which was accordingly done. The following day when the emperor resumed his authority, he sent round counter orders, to prohibit the coinage, break up the stamps, and call in all the money that had already been struck: but the empress had been beforehand with him, and had caused many thousands of the rupees to be circulated and collected in cabinets, and thus it happens that to this day many Collectors of curiosities, both Christians and Moors, have several of them in their possession. Indeed it is sometimes doubted whether their number has not been increased by false copies.
Of the rupees in actual circulation, the common gold ones are the least useful in trade, and do not always maintain the same standard value beyond the Mogul empire. I have seen them exchanged here for 7½ rix dollars, according to the Indian reckoning. The silver rupee, both half and whole, is used in trade throughout the Indies, and especially in the districts of Bengal and Surat. The Bengal coin is either the Sicca rupee or the Bazaar rupee. Sicca rupees are of two sorts, the new and the old; both being good, but the old the most prized. Bazaar rupees are poor, and are worth at least three stivers* less than the others, in this part of the world. The Surat rupees are also good. They are much the same as the Sicca rupees, and are likewise much used in trade. The value of a rupee is less than its current price, which is five shillings.† But, beyond the Bengal territory no one gives more than four shillings and a half for a Bengal rupee. The silver of the rupee is very fine, and of a better quality than that of the ducats. The English coin rupees at their chief place, Madras, but these are inferior to the rupees of Surat. A rupee is about the size of a shilling in circumference, but its thickness is greater.
The Pagoda is a gold coin struck by the heathens, in value about equal to two rix dollars. It weighs the same as a ducat, but is of inferior quality. It is called a pagoda because it bears the image of an idol on one side: a pagoda being the name for an idol temple. The most valuable are those bearing the impression of three heads. The pagodas with one head are less circulated. There is no image on the reverse, but an impression of holes, resembling the exterior of a thimble.
I have seen two kinds of Japanese coins; the Kobang and the Itzeboo. There are half and whole kobangs: the first equal to five and the last to ten rix dollars. Both are flat oblong pieces of gold, bearing no impression save a kind of sign in the middle, not unlike that with which our Vats are marked. The other coin, the Itzeboo is a small bar, and is seldom or never used by the Europeans in trade.
The coins which Europeans make most use of, are rix dollars, ducatoons, Spanish matten and ducats. The Dutch usually compute by rix dollars, and though salaries are counted by gulden in the Company’s books, they are generally paid down by the first named coin. Property also is taxed by rix dollars, and they are the medium employed in private commercial transactions. But a rix dollar here is equivalent to 48 stivers, only, instead of 50 as in Europe,—hence people who put their money into the Company’s funds to be repaid in Holland, make four per cent. profit, or two stivers on every rix dollar.
The ducatoon is the coin chiefly circulated by the Company in the Indies and particularly at Batavia. It passes for thirteen shillings; thereby affording the Company a clear profit of 2½ shillings on each piece. I must add an observation as to the remarkable ingenuity evinced by the Company in their mode of paying their servants. It is a good specimen of that cunning thriftiness for which they are noted all over the world. In the first place they pay in ducatoons, which always pass current here for thirteen shillings, instead of 10½, and in the second place they pay their light money for heavy, so that their servants for one gulden receive no more than sixteen stivers. And, in addition to this, the inferior officers of the Company receive their pay half in money and half in kind, giving the Company a profit of 50 per cent. on Indian goods and 75 per cent. on home commodities. From all which it appears very plainly that a soldier whose pay is nine gulden only costs his employers four.
This however does not alienate people from their service: for so artfully have they managed the whole concern that their officers, instead of feeling injured, are, on the contrary, well pleased with the treatment they receive. They are paid at the beginning of every month, so that no one is kept waiting, a punctuality which distinguishes the Dutch above all other Europeans in India. Moreover they give their servants a monthly allowance for board, varying according to their rank, and other compositions of like kind. A soldier receives about four shillings monthly, and rice sufficient for his consumption. An inferior merchant has four rix dollars: chaplains and upper merchants 10½ rix dollars, and also a house or lodging. At Batavia a permanent chaplain receives twelve rix dollars per month to provide lodgings, a pile (stapel) of firewood, two quarts (kan) of lisbon wine, four quarts of Dutch vinegar, six lbs. of cheese, twelve quarts of sack, twenty four lbs. of Dutch butter, and other articles besides. The same is the case in other places, where, in lieu of money, they receive a house, seven quarts of wine, four lbs. of cheese, one lb. of spices, consisting of cloves, cinnamon, mace and nutmeg (for the Company give or sell these articles, mixed, to their officers in order to prevent private trade in them) one quart of lisbon oil, eight quarts of coconut oil for their lamps, half a pile of wood, and drinking water. If to all this we add the 10½ rix dollars for board, I cannot see that our chaplains have any right to complain. Further to obviate all discontent, the Company empower their servants to send over their accounts, signed by the Director General, to Europe, where they may receive their whole salaries without any reduction: but as this course is attended with peril, and persons at distant stations would have a long time to wait for their money, they prefer receiving their salaries with the before mentioned loss.
The Spanish matten, which are here reckoned worth 10 shillings, come from the Manilla or Philippine Islands, the Spaniards bringing them to Batavia for the purchase of linen and cinnamon, to be exported to the West Indies. The Company make considerable profit on this trade.
Ducats are also much used in the Persians’ commerce, that nation circulating them in their payments to our Company. The Venetian ducats are the most valuable. The king of Persia receives heavy duties on the ducats, which the Company also are bound to pay. Consequently the price of the ducat is higher here than elsewhere; and as the Persians sell no great amount of goods to the Company, the latter are bound to receive the ducat at the fixed price, which rises as high as nineteen shillings, though more usually it is 18 or 18½. At Tutecoryn they are valued at 20s. The settlements of Malabar and Ceylon are generally provided with these ducats; the pepper trade being always carried on with that coin, at a firm price of 18s. the ducat.
But now to describe our Malabar specie. It has a good deal of variety, on account of the number of monarchs who possess the right of coinage. The gold and silver pieces are generally called fanams, those of copper or lead, Boeserokken. They differ greatly in value in different places. A fanam of Calicut is worth one shilling, a fanam of Quilon two shillings and a half; while those of Cochin are four to the shilling. It is my intention at present to describe only the Cochin mint, as being that in which the East India Company is concerned.
The Boeserokken are a mixture of lead and tin melted together, and bearing on the one side the arms of the East India Company, and on the other a figure resembling a harp. They are smelted in moulds, several being stuck together at the side, and then cut separate. Sixty of them are equivalent to a Cochin fanam or one stiver and a half, so that if a man were to reckon his capital in this coin he would find himself the possessor of some hundreds of thousands. The Cochin fanams are the common money of that kingdom, made use of both by the merchants and by the East India Company which pays its servants’ salaries in this coin. The right of coining fanams appertains to the king of Cochin as supreme authority in the country: but these monarchs are apt to be defrauded by those whom they appoint to strike the coins, and the metal has been found to be adulterated both in the assay and composition of the metal; consequently the Company have persuaded the king to allow the coinage to take place within the city, reserving to himself the appointment of the Mint masters, and having his own mark stamped upon the coin, but placing all under the supervision of the Dutch Commandant who sends Commissioners to watch the striking, mixing, and assaying of the fanams and to see that they have their due weight and value. There is always a deduction of 4 per cent., two for the king and two for the master of the mint, who pays all the expences incurred in the coinage. These fanams are composed of gold, silver and copper, 10 lb. of the metal being made up of 1 lb. of fine gold of the highest test, 4½ lb. of fine silver, and 4½ lb. of fine Japan copper. This mixture being melted down is then moulded into little balls of the proer weight, and beaten flat with a stamp having certain Malabar characters on either side. The coin is small, and very inconvenient to handle. The East India Company derive a profit from this coinage, as supplying the gold, silver and copper material: but this is not their only gain; for the present Commandant has discovered that the loss which always takes place in the smelting of the mixed metal and from which the old Mint masters made their profit, is not a loss upon the gold and silver, but upon the copper, and has to be made good by the addition of so much copper only.
Finally, I must speak of a kind of money called cowries, used not only in Bengal, but also exported in quantities to the West Indies. These cowries are small shells found on the shores of the Maldive Islands. They are distinguished into the coloured cowries, which are those least prized, and the white cowries, which are used instead of money in the aforesaid countries. The Hindoos in Bengal go about with bags full of cowries to purchase their daily necessaries: and the Europeans make their slaves carry them behind them, and use them on all occasions. From this we perceive that they may be made the means of a profitable trade, and indeed several English private ships visit the islands to buy them. It is a dangerous voyage however, both on account of the adjacent deep and of the climate, which is often fatal to foreigners. The inhabitants are a wretched race, owing to the islands being small and frequently under water, and so barren that they afford scarcely any thing but cocoanuts, which, together with a few fish, are the only sustenance to be procured. The boats of these people come annually to Cochin, bringing cowries for the Company, a few cocoanuts, and some dried fish which look like bits of wood, and are equally hard. In return for these commodities they take rice, the value of each cargo not amounting to more than 300 or 400 Rix dollars. Their boats are strangely fashioned. The bottoms are made of wood, but without nails, being fastened together by wooden bars. A foot above water they are woven of reeds or straw, for I cannot exactly say what it is; and their anchors are pieces of wood: so that how they manage to cross the sea is a marvel. However they only sail in the fine season, when storms never occur.
The natives of the Maldive Islands are blacker than the Malabars, and of a good height. Their religion is the Mahometan. You may imagine the power of their monarch when I tell you that at the annual voyage of his ships he sends a royal present to the Commandant of Malabar, which is brought with all due ceremony into the city upon a silver salver lent for the occasion, and consists generally of two small mats, worth scarcely two shillings !
Cowries being the principal wealth of these islands, it is worth while to mention how they are collected. The natives take branches of the cocoanut tree on which they fasten stones to make them sink to the bottom. These they leave lying in rows from six to eight feet deep in the sea, round the island. At the end of some days they go out in their canoes, and taking up these branches gently, find their leaves covered on all sides with cowries which they shake off into their boats. They are then thrown into heaps and left to decay, till they are thoroughly dried and purified from animal matter, after which they are polished and either sold to the merchants who come for them, or carried by the natives to Malabar and Ceylon.
Here you have a brief account of the money to be found in India. There are many other kinds besides, current in particular provinces, but those I have mentioned are the most used in commerce, particularly in commerce with Europeans. Having thus fulfilled my promise, I will here conclude, &c.