Indian Antiquary Vol 48

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

Page 157

Berr., 1919] NOTES ON CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE
163
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equal to 419 16. English. The advantage is considerable if you pay for it in Dollars... The Country Ships generally meet ours, and will sell their Tin for Rupees, instead of Dollars But observe to get large Slabs, if possible. If you cannot get all large, you may take every thing but their Chain-Stuff, like Jack-Cbains, and thin Stuft of Birds, etc... . If you buy of a Country-Ship, know whether they sell by the Queda or Selengare Bar ( bahar): The first is equel to 419 lb., the other not so much." Now their "thin Stuff of Birds” is, I take it, the tin tokens which are now known to numismatists'as Pegu and Tonasserlm medals vide Plate III. Fig. 6, and Supplement Plate III, figs. 1, 5 and 6; and Phayre, Int. Num. Or., vol. III, p. 38 and Plates III and IV.86 Stevens on the same page says “If you are obliged to take the small Stuf," and by this small Stuff" he to doubt meant lumps used as eurrenoy.
As to Siam, we find the factors of Ayuthia writing in 1675 to the East India Company 87 that “this King was pleased to give as credit for 40 cattees of silver 300 Bahr of Tinn, 1000 pecull of Sappar wood," and then that “ This King proffers that if your Honours will supply him with silver, whereof bee finds & decay, he will repay them in Tinn at a cheaper rate than he offer[6] to any."
For the Malay Archipelago, Groeneveldt, quoting the authority of the Hai-yü (Chinese). 1637,88 says of Malacca :-"In trading they use tin as their currency: three caties of this metal are about equal to one mace of silver.”
That this referred to a lump currency is shown by a paper on the Dutch in Perak (Journal of the Straite Branch, R. A. S., vol. 10.) in which Sir W. Maxwell says, p. 268, "The old Perak currency-lumps of tin, weighing 23 kati each, called bidor, have altogether disappeared ": a statement which throws light on expressions quoted by him (pp. 246-24T) from certain old Dutch treaties as well as on the Chinese record above quoted. Thus -
1650. Contract with the Chiefs of Perak Dependent on Acheen stipulating that the exclusive Tin Trade granted to the Dutch East India ] Company by the Ratoo of Acheen will likewise embrace the state of Perak... The Company to pay the same duty as at Acheen for the Tin it shall export and the value of the 7in Coinage to remain as it is at present, namely, 1 Bidore for Spanish Dollar and 1 bahr of 2 peculs for 125 bidore or 31 } Spanish Dollars.89
1655./ Treaty of peace between the Company and Sultana Todine, Raja Muda Forca and the Chief of Perak, tributary to the Crown of Acheen.-The Chiefs of Perak will pay to the Company a sum of 50,000 reals, pertly in Tin (100 bahrs) within a few days.
1680. Treaty of peace between the Company and the Ratoo of Acheen.-The remainder of the Company's claim amounting to 44,000 reals will be settled by diminishing the price of Tin from 317 to 30 reals per bar until the debt shall be extinguished.
For the same period we have the evidence of Pyrard de Laval, collected about 1608, as to Malacca (Hak. Soc. ed., vol. II, p. 176), who says that, like gold and silver, the people cut "calin," i.e. tin, “Into pieces to make purchases of goods."
* Bubeequent en quiries have since shown that by "thin stuff of birds" was meant the tin " cock" ingots used in the Malay Peninsula as currency. These ingots are called gambar or models of animale elephant, cock, tortoise, etc. Soe The Obsolete Tin Currency and Money of the Federated Malaw States, ante, vol. XLII, pp. 87, 92-94.
8 Anderson, Siam, p. 123. # Indo-China, 2nd Series, vol. I, p. 246.
• This explains an enigmatical statement in Stevens, Guide to E. 1. Trade, p. 87:-"1 Bahar is 3 Peoul (at Malacca the Pecul contains 100 Catty) or 375 lb. or 125 Bid." Here "Bid" is clearly "bidor."