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 203

AUGUST, 1897.1 CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
197
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
BY R. C. TEMPLE. (Continued from p. 161.)
The Effect of Bullion Currency. O the effacta commgrcially of the Burmese system of specie currency Yule makes
the following pertinent remarks :-“ Cariously enough our rupees were not merely not current as coin at Amarapoora, but the people were often unwilling to take them at all, except at a greatly depreciated value. So I have known a Scotch shopkeeper to decline " that small thing," a sovereign, preferring the well-thumbed indigenous one-pound note.39 In 1567, Cæsar Frederick (Purchas, Vol. II. p. 1761) says: - If he (the merchant) bring money, he shall lose by it.'
"In any case of shop-purchase, before arriving at a price, one is always asked to shew the money.co Then a new element of bargaining comes into every purchase ; the value of the money has to be ascertained, as well as the value of the goods; and in all mercantile tran830tions or other affairs involving considerable payment, en 1983yer or pwazi is employed, who receives one per cent. opon all sales. He is supposed, on this understanding, to be responsible for the quality of all gold and silver received in payment. These pro:zás profess to judge by inspection merely and to appraise in this way within half per cent of the
** Ava, pp. 358, 259. See alao p. 34. As an instance of how far wrong one on go in generalising without precise knowladge as to the effote on a people of coinmarcial relations novel to oneself, I would note the remarks of Mr. S. Davis, F. B. S. ( the hero of Benarea in 1798!, in his posthumous Paper on the Bhatias (J. R. A. N. Vol II. 1830), who says, p. 17, that "there was in his time.) no other coin than the 'Buhar' rupee," and that in very small quantities. He then proceeds to describe the people as living in a kind of Arcadian simplicitywithout money. But . perosal of these pages will show that it is the possession of money,' properly so oallod, that tends to induce commarcial honesty and simplicity in dealings rather than tho want of it.
In the Mandalay District the debased taunganni copper currency, described later on, was in 1837, found to be preferred to the Royal Mint currenoy. See Sladen's experience in Bham, in 1837, aud Cooper's in Western Chins in 1838, detailed farther on in thesd articles. For the opp aito experience, whera British rapous woro current in the Sismose Shan States, when the local money was not, see Book, Temples and Elaphants, p. 159. Co.nparo with his statemnt Calquhoun's remark in Amongst ths Shans, p. 193:-"Da Curae found our rupoe was a redoubtable rival to the Biamese tical at Luang Prabang, and was acoaptad at the same value, although it is really worth sixpence less." In Bhamo and thereabouts, as far as Momien, aycee silver bas, I am told, disappeared from currency and its place taken by British rupees, and rupees are acceptad at muoh above their intrinsic value in exchange for sy oee. In 1838 Cuoma de Körös told Prinsep that rapoes were everywhere current in Western Tibet : Vorful Tables, Thomas Ed. p. 32. Maloom, Travels, Vol. II. p. 145, in 1835 found "Company rupees and pice" every. where curront in Arakan. In Tibet, Maomahon, Fur Cathay and Further India, P. 237, says :-"According to Mr. Baber, "Those (rupoes ) which boar Oruwned presentinant of Har M usty's bond are named Lama Tob-uu or Vagabond Lama, the crowa being mistaken for the head-gear of a religious mendicant." In 1863, an attempt by
British officer to introduce a coppsr einnge into Manipur to displace the local bill.notal al entirely failed, The people would have none of it. Sya Browa's Statistical Account of Van pur, p. 89. u 1924, the Burmans at Prome at once melted down rapoos paid to them by the British Forces into local currency in ticals. See Tico Years in Ara, P. 280. M. Rocher, French Tongking official, after explaining that dollars are only acepted at 7% discount and then only in small quantities, gives this advice to travellers in Yunuan "Il y a donc tout avantage pour les négociants qui voudront faire lo voyaga, à se munir de lingots d'argent." Toung Pito, Vol. I. p. 51. The Chinese, in the early seventeenth Cantary, molted down all the foreiga sjlver they could get hold of, vide Pyrir 1 de Laval's statement (Hak. Soo. Ed., Vol. II. p. 174): "The Chinese, too, never let so much as a tastoon the modern 'tizxy,' worth in Henry VIIIth's raigu 61.) go out again, for thay malt all this silver into ingots and keep all their treasure in wilver, and not in gold, which is vastly common and cheap there."
.0 Maloom's remarks on this point, Travels, Vol. II. p. 279 f, are worth quoting in full. “Silver, in passing from hand to hand, becomes more and more alloyed, so that, when a man is asked the price of a thing, he says, let me see your money.' He then regulates his charge by the quality of the silver, and a piece is chopped off to moet
be bill; change, if any, being weighed in lond." C. Lockyer, Tra le in Inka, 1711, p. 39, as to the Malay Couutry: p 182, as to China.