________________
198
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1897.
1eal value. Colonel Symes says that in no instance did he bear of a breach of trust committed by one of these pwezús; 49 bat Col. Burney with longer and more accurate experience of them, calls them a sad nefarious set, quite unworthy of this high character. Their power of appraising is also much less than they profess. Burney found the valuations of some of those most esteemed as highly skilful to differ As much as ten per cent. among themselves.
"Adding this percentage or brokerage to the loss of frequent melting, including doubtless considerable embezzlement by the operations, which is estimated at from one to two per cent. on each process; and considering that all the silver current in the country is believed to go through the melting-pot on the average twice a year, some idea may be formed of the cost and wastage of this system." 43
In Burmese times the pucë 20 drove a thriving trade, for Phayre, Int. Vum. Or., Vol. III. Pt. I. p. 38, tells us that “at the time of the British occupation of Prome, & town having 20,000 inhabitants, there were in it not less than twenty pwerde, that is, brokers and assayers of silver. They had thier fornaces and crucibles in the corners of streets or under open sheds, like smithies, where they pursued their calling." Malcom, Travels, Vol. II. p. 244 f., says that he found in 1835 " the assayers of the precious metals expert and exact; and as money goes by weight, and is therefore constantly cut to pieces and alloyed, these persons are numerous." And at p. 270, he well explains the general attitude of the people towards currency. "The people are not anxions for coin, They cannot trust their rulers. They love higgling in bargains. They make a profit on their money, as well as goods, by increasing its alloy, and a numerous class of assayers, or brokers, called pwazaks (by foreigners poyzahs) subsist by melting up silver, to improve or deteriorate it, as they are desired. This they do before the owner's face, and have only the crucible and scorise for their trouble."
Stretell, in hi: Ficus Elastica in Burma Proper, 1976, a book full of the most valuable information about Upper Barma and the ways of its inhabitants, is disappointing as to currency, as he always quotes transactions and values in rupees. However, he mentions the brokers of the Great Bazaar at Mandalay, the Zêjê, and states that the rate of exchange from rupees into silver bits was four per cent, and into copper bits Rs. 3-2." The curious expression "silver bits" means, I gather, from pp. 76, 114, 155, 185, of the book, chips from lamps of silver. the smelting and adulterating of which for carrency the author found to be the chief emplos ment of the silver-smiths living north of Mandalay. Stretell talks of "legal” qualities of silver, going on Capt. Bower's Bhamo Exp.dition Report, 1868, but he states he did not think that the silver-smiths adhered to the standards and he uotes also the waste caused by the system "Buying and selling is both tedious and wasteful: not only do those unfamiliar with the quality of the metal suffer, bat great waste occurs in chopping off wee pieces from the ingot, to obtain the required weight at which the article purchased has been valued." Stretell had
See my remarks ante on valuation by rough Bay. " See also Scott, The Burman, p. 290. ** See also McLeod's opinion in '1836 in his Journal (House of Commons, No. 420 of 1860, pp. 57, 60), when writing of Kiang Tung and Ava
4 8o doss the French traveller Plouest, who was in Pega in 1786. See Toung Pao, Vol. I. pp. 203, 215 f. : Vol. II. pp. 35, 32, 38, 40, 47, 392, 995. But fortuustoly he quotes (Vol. 1. p. 215). "735 tioals ou roupies de 25 pour cent." which shews is that he really maant tickals when he said "roupies." At p. 216 he talks of "roupies de 25 pour cant." Twice ho meritions "piastras, " i..., dollars, as currency, vix, at Vol. I. p. 203 and Vol. II. p. 41. Ander. HUD, Mandalay to Momien, also almost always states Payments in rupees, and sometimes even in pounds and whillings. Soo pp. 204, 293, 369. Colquhoun's Amongst the Shans is quite disfigured by this habit feo pp. 70, 180, 135, 192, 274, 290, etc. The idea, no doubt, is in "popular" works to bring prices home to Europeon readers, but it is apt to do the opposite : e. g., Colquhoan, op. cit. p. 253, in quoting a statement of Richardson's, says, "each household paid half a tical of coarse silver (18, 8d)." This is quito incorrect: hall Siamese tioal was in Richard. non's time worth roughly ls. Sd., when of standard silver, and was certainly worth nothing of the sort when of course wilver, a Richardson himself knew very well. One would also like to know exactly what was meant by the translator in the English version of the Voyage de Siam, published in 1988, when be writes (p. 122) of the "Chineses" of Batavia: -"Some of them are very rich, and we were told that one of them died lately, who left bebiud him a Million in coined Money."
