________________
AUGUST, 1897.]
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
211
Evil of Bullion Currency. Enough has already been written and quoted to show that the actual monetary conditior of a country without a definite and settled ourronoy is not by any means of that desirable simplicity, which civilized man is so apt to attribute to savages and semiBevages. The truth appears to be the other way, viz., that simplicity in dealings can only exist, where money consists of a recognized coinage and where wealth is expressed in terms of that coinage. In fact, Ovid's famous line should, so far as regards accuracy, have properly ran: -- “ Effodiuntur opes irritamenta bonorum."
We have, however, such quaint testimony in an observer so acute as De Morga, as to what he considered the evil effects of an exchange of currency for barter in the case of Orientals, which he saw going on before his own eyes, (1598-1609), that I cannot forbear to quote it here : 100 -
“The tributo which the natives pay to the collectors were fixed by the first Governor, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (1571-1574) in the provinces of Bizayas and Pintados, and in the isles of Luzon and its neighbourhood, at a sum of eight reals as the whole yearly tribute of each tributary. This they paid in the produce which they possessed, gold, wrappers, cotton, rice, bells, fowls and the rest of what they possessed or gathered, a price being fixed and a certain value of each thing, in order that when making payment of the tribute with any one of these articles, or with all of them, it should not exceed the value of the eight reals.
In this manner it has gone on till now, the Governors raising the prices fixed and valuations of the produce as has seemed expedient to them at different times. The tax collectors have derived very great profits from collecting in kind; because after the produce came into their possession, they used to sell it at a higher price, by which they largely increased their incomes and produce of their collectorates, until a few years previously (to 1609) when, at the petition of some monks, and the instances, which they made upon the subject to His Majesty, orders were issued that the natives should pay their tributes in whatever they chose, either in kind or in money, without being compelled to anything else: so that having given their eight reals they would have fulfilled their obligation. This has been carried out, and
p. 171: Stretoll, Ficus Elastica, p. 48: Malcoin, Travels, Vol. II. p. 247. C. Colquhoun's mythical bell at Zimme, Among the Shans, p. 139, said to weigh 183 tons.
As to the hopelessness of collecting local historical information acourately. I may mention that my attempts at finding out the history of the lost bell above-noticed have resulted in this! In 1468 Dhammachéti bad the bell cast at the Pagoda itself, but before he could put it up Maung Ziugà (Philippe de Brito) removed it in a steamer, when it got lost in the Pazandaung Creek. Dhammacheti flourished 1430-1491, A. D., and Maung Zingi was in Burma 1600-1613, A. D.! This point is further illustrated in Hesketh Biggs' Shw.dagon Pagoda, 1895, pp. 21, 29, 16, 53 ff., and in the controversy that his remarks on the bells on the platform thereof gave rise to in the Rangoon Gaxstte be. tween Feb. and May, 1896. I may add that Staunton's great bell of Pekin, Embassy, 1797, p. 450, works out to 53 tons in weight.
" The Hakluyt Society's editor of De Morga constantly intrudes into the footnotes his firm belief in the vil. lainy that lies in gold, and is quite delighted when he finds (p. 284) that the natives of the Philippines hid their gold mines. "Et sic melius vitum quem terra celat," he exclaims. So writes Ovid also in the line following that mentioned in the text:-"Jamque nocens ferrum, ferroque nocentius aurum Prodierant." But such sentiments seem to me, however, to be the result of superficial observation, oraf incorrect reasoning from the facts observed. Captain Trant, the anonymous author of (nee Laurie, Pegu, p. 237) Two Years in Ava, obviously a thoughtful observer in many ways from his book, puts the result of the want of regalar money very well :-"Commerce caunot flourish without the extraneous aid of money : but in this country the precious metal is melted into bars and ingots and merely kept to look at; and the value of bullion is completely paralyzed" (p. 251). Also Dr. Anderson, Selungs of the Mergui Archipelajo, p. 4f., accounts for the poverty of the Selangs "by the system of barter, by which they dispose of their goods and which gave to dishonest traders the opportunity to fleece them. This state of things, however, is now much improved, but so long as the barter system exists - and it is still prevalent- and so long as their love of strong drink is pandered to, by the traders who deal with them, the Selungs will remain poor." See alao the remarks of the traveller Flouest as to the state of commercial affairs in Pega in 1786. Toung Pao, Yol. II. p. 41 1, also Ridgeway, Origin of Currency, pp. 11, 259.
100 Philippine Islands, Hak, soo. Ed., p. 324 f. .Eight Philippino reals were equal to one Spanish dollar.
