Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 24

16
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
JANUARY, 1928
the royal mint, 60 pieces each weighing one tickal each would be given in exchange : 20 of the pice I brought from Bengal were to be given in exchange for one of those coined tickals and 40 pieces of His Majesty's coinage. Now supposing the tickals issued from the mint to be of the same standard as the silver paid in and 21 per cent. worse than pure silver, he will gain at the rate of 663 per cent. on the silver. And as the copper pice I brought cost him only one tickal, 5 per cent. silver, for 81, or 83 for one tickal of 2 per cent., if he sells them at the rate of one tickal for 20, his gain on these pice would be 315 per cent. or in plainer language the pice he bought for 100 tickals he will sell for 415 tickals. His gain on the pice of his own coinage will amount to about one-third more. But if we take into consideration the advanced or nominal value of his new silver coinage, the profits on the issue of the Bengal pice will be enormous indeed. On the lack [lakh) of pice he will gain 7,318 tickals, five per cent. silver, or 8,781 sicca (Company's] rupees at the rate 598 per cent." (p. 312). Cox then says truly that this statement will serve as a proof of the extreme avarice, despotism and ignorance which held dominion in Burma.
The next entry we find (p. 313) is very significant : "Ten men, principal merchants, have been condemned to lose thier heads for paying and receiving silver bullion, as hereto. fore, contrary to His Majesty's orders." On the 27th and 28th (July, 1797], the ministers, probably goaded to desperation, had the courage to tell the king of the distress he was causing, and on the 2nd August we find an entry (p. 321): "This day His Majesty was graciously pleased to relieve his subjects by permitting the currency of flowered silver (ywelne]." Thus ended this characteristic attempt to establish a currency for the benefit of the king by the ruin of his people. It had lasted about a fortnight.
Now, we learn from this account that Cox brought 20,000 silver coins of two varieties, and 100,000 copper coins, and that the king, by his machinery, probably coined some more. But it is not probable that more than a very small proportion of any description ever got amongst the people.
Bad as were Boddp'aya's methods of forcing his currency on his people, despite its ficti. tious value, the proceedings of a Muslim monarch in Africa were much of the same kind and much more crafty. Charles Neufeld, who was for twelve years a captive under the Khalifa or Mahdi 'Abdu'llAhi of the Soudan at Omdurman, wrote an account of his imprisonment at that place in the World Wide Magazine (1899, vol. IV, No. 21, Dec.) and at pp. 234-235 we read :-“ As Nahum Abbaji was then trying to think out an invention for coining money, he suggested that he should apply to the Khalifa for my gervices in assisting him. This request 'Abdu'llahi was only too glad at the time to accede to. Saltpetre was coming in in large quantities, and he was in great trouble about his monetary system. As Khalifa, he was entitled to one-fifth of all loot, property, taxes, and goods coming in to the Baitu'l-Mal; and as all property of whatever description was considered to belong primarily to this administration, it followed that 'Abdu'llahi was entitled to one-fifth of the property in the Soudan. But as he himself had not much use for hides, skins, gum, ivory, and such like, he took his proportion in coin-after putting his own valuation upon his share.
"As the money the Khalifa took from the Baitu'l-Mal was hoarded and never came into circulation again, a kind of specie famine presently set in. Attempts had been made in the early days of 'Abdu'lláhi's rule to produce a dollar with a fair modicum of silver in its composition ; but Nüru'l-Garfawi, Adlan's successor at the Baitu'l. Mål, came to the conclusion evidently that a coin was but a mere token, and that, therefore, it was immaterial what it was made of, provided it carried some impression upon it. The quantity of silver in his dollars yrew less and less, and even then was only represented by a light plating, which wore off in a few weeks' time. When people grumbled, he un blushingly issued copper dollars, pure and simple. All dollars were issued from the Baitu'l-Mal as being of value equivalent to the silver dollar, and when the baser sort were refused, the Khalifa decreed that all future offenders