Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 95

APRIL, 1919.)
THE OBSOLETE MALAY TIN CURRENCY
II. Sugarloaf Scale. 2411 visa
1/4 780 777
3108 24G kurakurs 1/3
1040 1036
8108 Now the standard silver (Spanish) dollar weighs 416 grs., therefore 71 Sp. dollars weigh 3120 grs., and the references in the tin money table seem clearly to point to the subdivision of a unit of 8120 grs. This would mean that the ratio of silver money to tin money was 1 to 7, but by the tin ingot scales we find that the unit of that currency weighed 14 lbs. or 101 kati. That is, tin could be purchased at 103 kati to the unit (Sp. dollar) of either money. This represents its most persistent par price.
The general inference therefore from the above considerations is that the ratio of the unit of silver money to the unit of tin money was I to 7)," and that the ratio of the unit of money to the unit of ingot tin ourrency was 1 to 10}. The difference between the two ratios represents the profit of the mint-owners of the tin money, wbich was thus 3 points in 10 or 281%. Practically the gross profit to the mint on its production must have been 30 %, and considering the quality of the product, the method of minting and the prevailing low rates of labour, the net profit could not bave been far short of the gross, say 25% of the value of the product. It was obviously to secure this profit that the weight of the tin money was fixed at 7 times that of the established silver money of the time, which was the Spanish dollar and its recognised divisions. The weight or intrinsic value of the tin money is thus accounted for. Its form merely imitated the contemporary form in which ingots of tin were usually cast. .
The above conclusions are confirmed in an interesting and independent manner by a table to be made out of Mr. Laidlaw's letter dated 14th June 1804 36 from Lower Perak. cents
weight name
av. tahil
1 oz. penjuru piak
if lbs. suku jampal
63. dollar
13 . (10 kati) képing
50 pikul
138} , bahara
400 This shows that the weights and scales given to Mr. Laidlaw. by his native informants are merely a reduction, on the Dutch system, of the former pre-European system of the ingot tin currency made to suit the exigencies of commerce under British rule, by making the dollar 19 kati and the bahara 400 lbs. In outlying parts of the Malay Peninsula the old Dateh system of reckoning fractions of the anit might be expected to outlast for some time the introduction of the modern British system, which is comparatively recent. dollars by Malay informants, as they usually depend on the price of tim, as purchasablo by dollars, from time to time. Cf. infra, P. 106. With the help of Mr. O. O. Blagdon I have been able to read the legend on the larger specimens and partly on the smaller. They are interesting as exactly dating the issues. Thus the two larger are identical and rond-ini belanja Pahang 1 dari tarikh sanaf 1281 pada awal bulan Rabi'u-l.thani, Tbie [is] money of Pabang under dato your 1281, on the lat of the month Rabi-ul-thani, i. e., Srd Eeptember 1864. The smaller ooine are also identioal and on them appears Malik-al-Adil .... tarik sanat 1245 ........... the just king l..... date your 1899... Perhaps Malib al-'Adil should be road milki-l'adit, fall value, legal tonder : 100 J. R. A. 8., Straita Branch, No. 44, p. 215.
* Tavernier sys (irra, p. 89) in the 17th century that the Malay tin coin which he figures weighed 11 ox, (=kati) and was worth in silver looally 2 sous (oents)=wung. This gives the ratio of silver to tin thon as 1:5.
67
135
12,
8
100