Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 163

JUNE, 1897.]
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
152
"I have posted up notices in the Bazaar," says Mr. Scott, "and have ordered all the Sawbwas to notify throughout their States that these rupees are as valid and current as the most recently minted coin, but without any effect whatever. Threats to punish them for refusin, legal tender are equally futile. They submit with an air of martyrdom. The eccentricities with regard to coined money are in fact endless. On the Chinese border two-anna pieces are all the rage.21 A man might scoff at the idea of selling a pony for Rs. 150, but if you offered him 300 two-anna bits, 39 the odds are that he would accept without further chaffering. In the WA States, on the contrary, they look on silver money of any kind with comparative notis chalance and impartiality. A two-anna piece is no more attractive than a rupee, and it is quite possible to get a hen's egg for either, but if you produce copper coin, the whole neigh. bourhoud is on the alert to sell everything it possesses from its wives downwards."23.
Here we have a double influence at work :- distrust of an unaccustomed mark on the currency, together with a desire of sticking to what is known in preference to adopting what is unknown as currency, and the habit of using anything as currency which happens to be of & recognised metal 24
Perhaps the existing attitude of the Further Indian wilder tribes towards currency · may be best expressed in the words of Dr. Gardner, in describing the early Jewish coinage i:. Coins and Medals, p. 153: "It would seem that until the middle of the Second Century B. C., the Jews either weighed out gold and silver for the price of goods, or else used the money usually current among the surrounding peoples or among those who came into commercial contact with them." In a modified degree, owing to a closer acquaintai.e: with a civilised currency, this attitude is still characteristic of the Burmese peasant, and in: still more modified degree of the peasantry of India proper 25
This view is confirmed by what Barros, has said in his Decalas about cowries in ti Sixteenth Century28 :- "There is also a kind of shell-fish in the Maldives), as small as a srsti. hut diffrently shaped, with a hard, white, lustrous shell; some of them, however, being so highly polished and lustrous that, when made into buttons and set ip gold, the
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21 This was not Dr. Anderson's experience. Ses Mandalay to Momein, Pp. 91, 978. 22 Wrth Rs. 37).
23 Ridgeway's ingenious explanation of this class of fact is that certain coins used as currency by civilised) happen to be valued by certain savages or semi-savages as personal ornaments and hence the preference differeat tribes for different specific coins without reference to intrinsic worth. Origin of Currency. p. 56. In Parliamentary Return of the Lusbai Expedition (Parl. Papers, House of Commons, E.I., Cachar, 1872) we bay several io stances of the Lushais' view of money and the value they set on ornaments. Of these the best exam ut pp. 251 and 207, respectively, showing the terms for money and for ornaments to be synonymous. Page 251 :, "I he list of property which the Looshais say was taken from them by the sepoys does not agree with the propert: sent me by Colonel Stubbs. The following articles were missing : dios (knives) Re. 3, gold mohur of the perk Re. 1, Shotes (loin-cloth) Re. 1, markin cloth Rs. 2, silver bangles R,. 2, rupee of the neck Re. 1, rue (turba! Ro. 1, pakoor kookie (P) Rs. 2." Page 207: "Then Sookpilal's (Cbief's) muntrie (original form of mandari: Aee Yule, Hobson-Jobson, «. v.) offered 50 metras (buffaloes), 10 guus, angchio (enuldrons), 20 gongs, and 20 grea. Necklaces for the captives, but to no purpose."
24 The same influence is apparently seen in the following extracts quoted by Anderson, Simon, p. 67 f. In 161 the English factors in Siam bought sa ppan-wood to send to Japan. Cocke was the agent in Japan. "The fact iu Siam in exchange for the sappen-wood and the rest of the cargo, wined a return I'rom Japan in a coin, il specim 1) Which William Eaton was to take back with him to show Cocka, who was told thnt if lic could send coin of the sameiescription it would tond very much to the employer's profit, provided it bu kept secret. Cocks' reply to thi. request w.. that he could not accede to it, as it was unlawful in Japan to stamp any coin, but that it was permissil to suelt si veriuto bars." Anderson then notes: "By 1690 the exportction of 'silver pluto' from Japan to Sia: 2.1035 har practically ceased, as Kaempfer relates that on liis visit to Ayutlia in that year all the inoncy of inn i coined from Dutch crowns, which were for this purposc coined in Holland and inported by tlie Dutch East Ini. Compaus at seven shillings the crown."
20 In view of actual facts in modern India and Further India, I cannot belp thinking that the true coinngo of: anciout Earopean and Avintio world could hardly have desceuded to the pousautry. Soo Nicolo Couti's statement : weat he found about 1430 in Tudia. India in the Fifteenth century, Vol. II. p. 30. • Qased in Gray's El. of Pyrard de Laval (Hak. Soc. 1., Vol. II. p. 131 f.).