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106
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[APRIL, 193.
Through all this, the influence of the E.I. Co.'s coinage for the Straits Settlements can be perceived. It had another curious effect along the Coast. The money the Company established was on the Indian scale of rupees of 16 annas of 12 pie, i.e., 192 pie to the rupee. Between 1786 and 1825, Malacca had an alternating history as a possession of the Dutch and British. It was restored to the Datch in 1818 and finally handed over to the E. I. Co. in 1825, when Kelly (Cambist, 1835, I., p. 108) reports that "accounts are kept in rix dollars of 8 schilling or 48 stiver; this is subdivided into 4 doi!.” Now this statement makes 192 doit to the dollar of account. That is, the local people managed to make their accounts conform to the new money by the simple process of doubling its value on paper, and thus to stick to the old ideas and scale of 400 cash to the dollar, at a discount.
We have also an echo of this in the actual coinages. Dr. Hanitsch, op. cit., p. 197, quotes specimens of a copper coin struck in Batavia with the Dutch E. I. Co.'s coins and dated 1802 and 1815-24. One of them (and perhaps two) was issued during the British occupation of Java (1811-16). These coins bear the figures to and 5, showing that they were i of something and 5 of something else. The figures i no doubt referred to the 16 annas in the rupee, which make the coin equal to 5 "pice" (köping). This gives 80 pice to the rapee, though in point of fact, as the text shows, kõping ran at that time 40 to the Madras rupee or half dollar. It would appear, therefore, on this argument, that the value of the money was doubled in the coinage as well as on paper, in order to stick to the old ideas. This was the fact, because the coins in question were for currency in Achin as kupang or 3 duit (képing) pieces. The Acbin kupang was at that date to of a pardao or dollar of 4 8. 8 d., i, e., double of a rupee of 2 3.4 d. All this means that the familiar Indian coinage was adapted to the habits of Sumatra by doubling the value of the denominations, the anna or te rupee being exactly half the Achin kupang or lo dollar,
How the rate of 88 keping to the dollar became fixed is brought out in an interesting manner (op. cit., p. 56), thus. Wilson says, quoting the Government Gazette, 2 March 1826: “The Tavai (Tavoy) minor smelts the ore immediately on his return to town (from the tin mines), and coins those sorts of pice (cash) which are current in the bazaar. Of these 15462a, make one pikul of Pinang-allow 14 for wastage-so that, if the average price of the tin of the Coast be 20 Sp. dollars per pikul, we shall have 38} pices carrent for the value of one sicca rupee, which is very nearly what it was once valued at in Tavai, viz., 40 pices. The established rate at present is 44 pices for one rupee, whether at Madras or sicca (.e., Bengal standard), although the bazaar people only give 40 pioes for a Madras rupee, if allowed their option; 44 pices for a Madras rupee seems to be above the intrinsic value of the metal (in terins of the rupee).
There is, therefore, bere an exceedingly interesting proof of the spread of the tin currency along the Western Coast of the Malay Peninsula and its consistency and persistence over the whole country, as Mr. Laidlaw's information gives 80 kēping to the dollar in c. 1860 and Wilson's 88 képing in 1826.
· For proof, see Appendix VI. 24 The official E. I. Co.'s rate was 1600 to the ollar (Chalmer's Hist. of Currency in Brit. Colonies, p. 382 1.).
The difference here means the local discount.
1.e., 774 cash to the dollar at 2 rupees to the dollar, giving & ratio of tin to silver at c. 6:1. Wilson's 66 kebean to the dollar gives ratio of c. 61 to ]. Chalmer's loc. cit. shows that the ratios then varied at Perang from 6: 1 to 5: I. Milburn, Oriental Convmorca, 1813, Vol. II, p. 300, has a statement which makes the ratio 4.1. "The current pice are coined on the island, being pieces of tin, nearly the size of an English penny. They have the IE. I.) Company's mark on one side and are fate on the other; 100 of them ought to contain 4 cattis of pare tin." At p. 816, Milburn makes the proportion 8:1 at Selangor alternatively 6: 1 according to Kelly, Oambial, 1856, Vol. 1., p. 115.
• This statement affords a strong instance of the necessity of referring all mercantile statements of value to a general standard,
