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314
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1882.
fine gold, with European devices, for the dependencies of Goa, but they also had “Silver Pardos" [Patacas] and "a great quantity of small copper and tin money, not much unlike that of the kings already mentioned."
We can complete the details of the latter portion of the passage contributed by Tavernier from our home annals, and can produce speci- mens from our own Mints, which will probably explain why the money we first coined at Bombay did not find acceptance outside of our own domains.
Charles the II. came to the throne in A.D. 1660. His marriage contract with Catherine, the sister of Alphonso VI. of Portugal, was arranged late in 1661, and completed in about May 1662. Under its terms he obtained the cession of the Island of Bombay, which was made over to the East India Company on the 27th March 1668, and finally passed into their possession on the 23rd of September of that year, with its then revenue of £2,833 per annum, and the King's garrison of two companies of Foot, and who volunteered into the “Company's Service, and thus formed its first military establishment at Bombay." "In 1671," Bombay, rising in importance, "a Mint was ordered, and the building of 2 ships and 2 brigantines commenced upon." "In 1676 (28th Charles II.) by the King's letters patent dated 5th October, a Mint was authorised at Bombay to coin Rupees, Pice and Budgrooks," which should be current not only " in the Island, but in all the dependencies of the Company in the East Indies."
Of course, it is somewhat venturesome to speculate on International trade exchanges upon such limited materials as the available coins afford. But it would seem that they essentially confirm and explain Tavernier's statement of the non-currency of the earlier Bombay issues outside the Island, a fact, indeed, which is virtually admitted by the King's letters
patent of 1676. They, moreover, appear to support the inference of the 2..-3d. rate of exchange per Rupee, which our own countrymen clearly looked upon as a quasi normal tariff. I shall have occasion to revert to the question of English money as estimated against Indian metallic values, but this much may be stated here, that the old Company, in the first instance, clearly underrated the value of the local rupee, as may be seen by comparing the weight of No. 1, or the Company's Coin of the 7th year of their Charter of 1668, = A.D. 1675, with the increased weights given to the subsequent issues Nos. 3, 4, bearing the Royal Arms.o
I have selected the eight subjoined examples of Anglo-Indian money issued during the reign of Charles II, and added a single specimen of the Bombay Rupees of James II of 1687, which reverts to the arms of the East India Company.
CHARLES II. No. 1. Silver, Weight 177-8 grains. Date Anno-septimo 7th year, "-British Museum. OBVERSE. Centre.
MON : BOMBAY ANGLIC REGIMS
A° 7° Margin.-A: DEO : PAX: ET INCREMENTVM: REVERSE.
Centre.-Shield, with the arms of the East India Company. Above, two rosettes at the sides, in the middle two lions and two fleur de lis quartered. Below, two ships and a brig.
Margin.-IND: ORI: HON: SOC: ANG :
No. 2. Silver, Weight 167.8 grains. Date A. D. 1677. B.M. OBVERSE. Centre.
THE RVPEE OF
BOMBAIM above one, below two, rosettes.
5 These were known by the name of St. Thomas. Tevernier gives an engraving of a specimen-Obverse, the arms of the King in a shield, with G. A. at the sides, and REX PORTUGALLA in the margin. Reverse. Figure of a man, with date 1660. Margin Sr. THOME.
. Tavernier, p. 13.
* The grant bears date in 1668. "Bombay was to be hela [by the Company) of the king in free and common soocage, as of the manor of East Greenwich, on the pay: ment of the annual rent of £10 in gold, on the 30th of September in each year." Mill's History, vol. I, p. 97. See also, Hume, Hist. England, vol. VII, pp. 349, 378,
&c.; Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, 1805, vol. II, p. 502; Harris's Voyages, vol. I, p. 898.
Chronological Table of European and British connection with India, compiled by Capt. H. B. Henderson. This admirable résumé was first published in Prinsep's Useful Tables, as an appendix to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. IV, for 1835, page 153.
• Bruce's Annals, pp. 280, 392.
10 Jahangir's Rupees of Ahmedabad weigh 176 and 1757 grains ; Marsden, p. 167. ShAh Jahan's Surat Rupee is also 176 grains; Marsden, p. 639.
1 Ruding. London, Edit. 1819, Plate xv, fig. 11, Suppt. ii, vol. V, p. 396.
