Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 42

39
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1898.
This is identical with the Siamese, i.e., Continental Indo-Chinese, quaternary scale, thus :
XVth Cent. Malay.
Siamese Quaternary.
1 ...
4 kobang are 1 mace
...
...
2 songʻpê are 1 flang 2 fúang , 1 saling 4 sòngpé, 1 saling 4 saling » 1 tickal) 4 tickal 1 tael 16 salung „ 1 tael 20 taeli catty
..
16 mace are 1 tael ... 20 tael » 1 catty
The kobang therefore represents 2 p'e or half a fúang.
The above table applies to Java, and that there was no difference in denominations in Acheen (Sumatra) up to c. 1833, or perhaps up to 1858, can be gathered from Thomas' Ed. of Prinsep's Useful Tables, p. 115, which gives: - "Tale of 16 mace or 64 copangs." But his table goes on to say “Catty = 100 tales or 20 bancals (bánykal)," and he gives the weight of the catty at 2 lbs. 1 oz. 141 drs, av, or nearly double the Chinese catty of 15 lbs. av., i, e., this modern Achinese catty is practically the Siamese catty. The calculation also greatly reduces the weight of the tael below that of the Chinese tael (c. 580 grs.) and makes it only 148.2 grs.
These statements lead to the consideration that among a people chiefly occupying a very large Archipelago a great variety in the actual weights of the standard denominations may be looked for.54
Such indeed is to be found among the Malay populations, making a study of their system somewhat puzzling and difficult. Thus, from the work just quoted, loc. cit., we can gather the following table of the weights of the tael at various points in the Malay Archipelago about 1833: - Acheen ...
Sumatra ...
... grs. 148-2 Amboyna ...
Moluccas ...
... ... 5 45535 Banjarmassin Borneo ...
→ 614-4 Bantam ...
» 1,055 Bencoolen...
Sumatra ...
ra ... ... ... » 638 Macassar ... ... Celebes ...
614 Natal ... .... ... Sumatra ...
...
584 Palimbong
... Sumatra
*** ...
... ... » 949.4 While for Cachao (Tongking) is given 590.7 grs, and for China 579.84 grs. (the usual standard).55 The catty is, in the Archipelago, no steadier, thus :
Acheen ... ... ... Sumatra ... ... ... lbs. ? oz. 1 drs, 141 Banda . .. .. Moluccas ... ... ... 6 1 10 Banjarmassin ... ... Borneo ... ... ... 1 , 5 55
Java
of Crawford, Indian Archipelago, Vol. I. p. 271: Marsden, Sumatra, p. 171: Stevens, Guide, pp. 87 f., 127 ff. Lockyer, Trade in India, pp. 42, 63, 70.
to There is more method in all this variety than would at first appear. The existing Singapore bangkal, or tael of weight is 832 grs, and equals, of set purpose, 2 standard dollars of 415 grs, each. Similarly all these tal weights ex opt that of Acheen, which is the only indigorous one, and that of Natal, which folluws the modern Chinese, refer to the standard dollars of c. 416 grs, in some fixed proportion; e. 5., tho Banjarmasin, Macasser, and Bencoolen weight equals 1 dollar; the Amboyns weight equals 14 dollar; the Bantam weight equals 2 dollars; and the Palimbong weight equals 21 dollars,