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CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
205
AUGUST, 1897.]
Again in No. 174 (B).- Deposition of John Laird, Esq. (a prisoner among the Burmese), we have (p. 223) a clear instance of money valued merely as weight;71 there being at that time no coinage whatever :
"Q. Did you go up (to Ava) in chains ?
A. No, I paid a bribe of 60 ticals to the commander of the war boat sent from Ava to convey me and was excused.
Q. With what offence were you charged ?
A. With none whatever that I am aware of. I was simply told that the King had called me. Fifty men came to my house to put me in irons. I said, Don't put me in irons. I will make you a present. They demanded 600 ticals, and were finally satisfied with 60."
Mr. Laird also stated he never paid by retail more than one tical a viss for pickled tea, and describing the ransom paid by or for the prisoners he stated it all in ticals (pp. 226 ff.). Nevertheless in valuing Siamese sugar we find :
"Q. What was the price of this sugar in the market of Ava ?
A. From 30 to 36 sicca rupees72 the 100 viss, or 365 lbs. avoirdupoise (sic)" (p. 226).
At p. 238 ff., is the deposition of "Agha Mahomed," a merchant, who (on p. 239) states that a bounty of 150 ticals was given to the Burmese Army because the King saw that the English paid their troops monthly and considered that this was the reason they fought so well.73" But few troops obtained" this bounty.
In the Appendix to Wilson's work we find revenue and fines stated simply in ticals.74 E. g., Document No. 21, p. xlv., says: "The tax on the Karians (Karens in the Bassein District) was rated at about 18 ticals annually per plough or yoke of buffaloes, the total produce of this was about 45,000 ticals." On p. xlvi. it is stated that "the revenue on law proceedings was divided between the Government and the local authorities, and the latter not unfrequently were obliged to contract for their proportion. They sometimes had, however, to pay instead of receiving, and in case of robbery, where the offenders were not secured, the head men of the
11 There are several passages in De Morga's Philippine Islands shewing that the early Spanish merchants valued money by weight as often as by quantity of coin. E. g., "The galloon Santo Tomas, which was expected from New Spain, with the silver of two years belonging to the merchants of the kingdom." (Hak. Soc. Ed., p. 170). This was in 1578. On the 25th April in the next year the Spanish Captain, Francisco de Ibarro, when his ship, the Buer Jesus, was seized by the Dutch, threw all his specie overboard, and all that was taken by the Dutch was "in the pilot's hose, where there was a little bag with just a pound of gold" (p. 177). In 1603 Governor Pedro de Acuñha, gave some mandarins from China "a few presents of silver and other articles" (p. 220). In describing the curious local custom of full, half, and quarter and joint slaves, De Morga says, p. 299, that "the common price of a (complete) slave usually is (c. 1609) at the most ten taels of fine gold, which are worth eighty dollars (Spanish)." At p. 302, he says that barter of one thing for another was the usual way of trade, and "sometimes a price intervened which was paid in gold according to the agreement made."
Anderson, Siam, quotes many passages from English mercantile documents shewing that the English also in the Seventeenth Century valued money by weight:-e. g., p. 143 f., Capt. Barkin of the Patani Merchant, made a claim in 1678 of 1,100 ticals of ready money." In the same year Mr. Sanger, the factor in Siam, received an advance of "200 cattees of silver from the King" (p. 144). See also pp. 160 f., 280.
72 That the term "rupee" was an exceedingly vague one, is graphically pointed out by Mr. Gouger, Prisoner in Burma, p. 298, where he shews that a memorandum, attached to the Treaty of Yandaboo (1828), stating that the term "rupee" in the Treaty meant sicca, i. e., Bengal rupees, and not Madras rupees, was due to his advice, and made a difference of Rs. 70,000 on the whole agreement in favour of the East India Company, owing to the sicca rupee being worth 6 to 7 per cent, more than the Madras rupee. The mistake arose of omitting to define the term from the British officers drafting the Treaty coming from Bengal, whereas the only rupee known to the Burma Gov. ernment was the Madras rupee. I ought to remark, however, that the additional article to the Treaty says nothing about sicca or Madras rupees. See Wilson, Documents of the Burmese War, No. 170, p. 210.
13 Gouger, Prisoner in Burma, p. 270, says the amount was 100 tickals, equal £12.
14 In Quedah (Kora or Kala) the Chinese found in 618-906 A. D., that "as taxes the people pay a little silver: " Indo-China, 2nd Series, Vol. I. p. 242. In Malacca, in 1116 A. D., tribute was paid in "taels of gold :" op. cit. p. 243. Cf. Govt. of India Records, Salween Survey, 1865, p. 7.
