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 295

NOVEMBER, 1897.] CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
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of it. But it is quite possible that its issue is strictly local and unless he happened to visit the actual locality of use, he might easily be unable to procure any information about it.82
The use of rough iron for barter currency among the wild tribes about Burma is confirmed by a note of Dr. Brown, Manipur, p. 53, who says that "the trade of the Khongjai Tribe is very limited, and only occasionally cloth is brought to the Manipur Valley and exchanged for iron, salt, etc."
Hatchets, knives, hoes, etc., are of course, well known as articles of standard value in many parts of the world, and it is hardly necessary here to do more than merely notice one or two instances of their use as such in Further India. Wilcox in Asiatic Researches, Vol. XVII. p. 314 ff., notices that “the Khamti and Sing-Pho (Kachins) were supplied by the Kha-Nung with salt and thin iron dhas, the latter forming the currency of the district."83 John Crisp, in his Account of the Poggy or Nassau Islands, found, in 1792, that there a sort of iron hatchet or handbill, called parang, is in much esteem with them, and serves as a standard for the value of various commodities, such as cocoanuts, coolit coys,84 poultry, etc."88
(8) Gold and Silver Trees. - Bock, Temples and Elephants, p. 146, has a curious reference to this point: - "Each of the six Lao States is called upon to pay tribute to Siam. This is paid triennially, and takes the form of gold and silver betel-boxes, vases and necklaces, each enriched with four rabies of the size of a lotus-seed, and a hundred of the size of a grain of Indian cern. Besides these are curious representations of trees in gold and silver, about eight feet high, each with four branches, from which again four twigs, with a single leaf at the end of each, depend. The gold trees are valued at 1,080 ticals each, and the silver ones at 120 ticals each."
I have further noted a traveller's remark, the exact reference to which I have unfortunately mislaid, that similar trees were paid as revenue or tribute to the Malay States below Mergui, and that they had become a standard of value.96
A complete parallel to the Laos State tribute is to be found in Browne's Thayetmyo, p. 95, who tells us that it is recorded that about 1819, in addition to the taxes on that district, the greater officials sent annual presents to the Court at Ava of a silver bowl each and some broad cotton cloth and the lesser officials smaller bowls and less cloth," which, of course, came out of the pockets of the tax-payers."
The old travellers to China found out that the "tribute" or gift for the European was & fixed a mount in kind, and hence was started a kind of standard of tribute much on the lines of that just quoted.87 In China the custom led to a curious series of false embassies made by mercantile adventurers under forged credentials. "Their presents to the European always consisted of 1,000 arrobas, or 1,333 Italian pounds, of jade, 300 being of the very finest quality; 340 horses ; 300 very small diamonds; about 100 pounds of fine ultramarine; 600 knives ; 600 files. This was the old prescriptive detail, which none might change. The cost price of the whole might be some 7,000 crowns, but the Emperor's return present was worth 50,000. These sham embassies, disguising trading expeditions, were of old standing in China, going back at least to the days of the Sung Emperors." No wonder that Goes (1595-1603) remarked that no one paid more for his marble” than the Emperor !
. I have quite lately found in M. Aymonier's new book (1895) Voyage dans le Laos, Vol. I. pp. 22, 27, 140, . complete and good account of the lingots de fer," which I regret I cannot further notice for want of space.
+ Citing this quotation, Terrien de la Couperie, Ou Numerals and the Swanpan in China, p. 14, remarks that the dha is "obviously connected with the Chinese tao, the name of the knife-money." On this I would note that in Burmese d'a is spelt t'4. See Stevenson, Bur. Dict. p. 558, and other similar works. I may note also that at Khabna in Eastern Bengal I procured a curious knife in the bar there, called du, in 1890.
* This word is Malay, kulit kayu, and is a material used by Europeans for matting houses and as dunnage for pepper cargoes, See Yule, Hobson-Jobson, &. . coolicoy; to the quotations given there under that word this one is a
* Indo-China, 1st Series, Vol. I. p.71 f. * Maloom, Travels, Vol. II. p. 119, alludes to these gold and silver trees as being paid as tribute by the people of Quedah, first to Ligor, then to the Barmese, and then to the Siamese. He quotes Grieg's Report to Sir S. Rafios, as his authority. Cf. gold and silver flowers in the Shan States: Yule, Ava, p. 308. In Perak, Wilson, Documents, APPI. p. IX. Cf. Bowring, Siam, Vol. I. p. 3: Anderson, Siam, p. 45. They are called bunga-n in the Malay States, Swettenham, Malay Vocab., Vol. I. p. 230 .
57 Yule, Par Cathay, Vol. II. pp. 564,589 f.