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212
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1897.
experience has shewn that, though this appears to be a compassionate ordinance, and one favourable to the natives, it does them a great injury, because, being, as they are, of their natural disposition inimical to labour, they neither sow, nor weave, nor work the gold, nor rear fowls, or other provisions, as they used to do when they had to pay tribute in these things : and they easily, without so much labour, acquire the sum of money with which they acquit themselves of their tribute. From this it follows that the natives, from not working, possess less property and substance, and the country, which was very well supplied and abounding in everything, commences to feel a want and scarcity of them, and the holders of the collectorates, both His Majesty, as well as the individuals who held them, have experienced great loss and reduction in their value." 3
On the other hand, of the infinite trouble which the obligation to barter constantly brought on the old English merchants in the East, we have many instances in that very excellent book, Dr. Anderson's English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century. E. g., at p. 136, a Mr. Sanger reports in 1676 of the tin in Siam, 6. e., Mergui, that the King's price was "op 88 (dollars). 50 p (per) Bah? of 8 Pec! in bart! of goods w" is possible w ready money may bee pehased at or about 45 p p Bah': and it is soe much y better if it can bee soe redaced w. goods in bart!” Here we have the barter value of goods clearly stated to be higher than the cash value.
In 1678 the President and Council at Fort St. George objected to Burneby's invoice of goods from Siam. "He had 'invoiced the copper at three several prices, viz., at 12, 10, and at 8 tayle p. chest,' which they believed represented the rates he had received in barter for other goods and bought for ready money.' It was therefore difficult they said to know the losse or gains upon it bere'; therefore they presumed it would be a more plain way to charge it all at y ready money price, for otherwise the gaines is made upon y copper in the goods in wlich it is bartered, and soe in other goods received in Barter.'"6
In a Report on the Trade of Siam written in 1678, Anderson quotes, p. 421, the following: - "Copp(er) of them whose occasions necessitate an immediate sale to negociate their Returnes, may att first arrivall bee bought for :6: Taell :1: Tecall p. Pec! for Cash, but at y: same time tis curr for :8: Taell in Barter." Here again the barter value of goods differed from the cash valne.
A little thought will shew how great the uncertainty and difficulty in making up acconuts of loss and gain must have been under such a system. There was a double appraising :of the goods to be bought and of the goods to be given in return. Then, the value of goods when bought by barter varied in an indeterminate manner from their value when bought for cash, i. e., apparently for coin, The quotations shew the variations to have been as 45 to 50, as 12 or 10 to 8, and as 6 to 8, almost in the same year. And lastly, in rendering accounts all these varying values had to be reduced down to a cash value. Truly one perceives what a blessing a fixed currency in coin of the realm really is, when one comes to realise the difficulties that beset our ancestors in the East only two hundred years ago.
(To be continued.)
The whole passage rends suspiciously like special pleading, but, if it be not, and given that the practical result of changing payment of taxes in kind to an optional payment in cash had actually the result of reducing the products of the country, it is odd that a trained lawyer like De Morgs should not have seen that his statements amount to this the collectors undervalued the payments in hind, which the people naturally looked on as unfair, and the tax in cash was so light that the people had not to work in order to pay it.
• They used to barter with each other. In 1683 Potta at Ayuthia bartered a "chest of copper" for " batt of beer" with a Captain Heath. Anderson, Siam, p. 199. • Cf. also op. cit. p. 139.
• Op. cit. p. 147. Cf. also p. 192.
