Travels in India (Tavernier) 6.4
Travels in India (Ball) 6.4
- Language
- English
6.4.1
The other small money consists of shells called cowries, which have the edges inverted, and they are not found in any other part of the world save only in the Maldive Islands. It is the principal source of revenue of the King of these Islands, for they export them to all the States of the Great Mogul, to the kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda, and even to the islands of America, to serve as money. Close to the sea they give up to 80 for the paisá, and that diminishes as you leave the sea, on account of carriage; so that at Agra you receive but 50 or 55 for the paisá. Finally, according to the manner of counting by the Indians— 100,000 rupees make a lekke, 100,000 lekkes ,, kraur, 100,000 kraurs ,, padan, 100,000 padans „ nil. In India a village must be very small if it has not a money-changer, whom they call Shroff, who acts as banker to make remittances of money and issue letters of exchange. As, in general, these Changers have an understanding with the Governors of Provinces, they enhance the rupee at their will for paisá and the paisá for these shells. All the Jews who occupy themselves with money and exchange in the empire of the Grand Seigneur pass for being very sharp; but in India they would scarcely be apprentices to these Changers. [Here follows, in the original, a table giving the letters used as numbers, which need not be reproduced.]
6.4.2
They have a very inconvenient custom for payments, and I have already remarked upon it in reference to golden rupees when one makes a payment in that coin. They say that the longer time that a rupee of silver has been coined the less is it worth than those coined at the time, or which have been coined a short time, because the old ones having often passed by hand, it wears them, and they are in consequence lighter. Thus, when you make a sale, it is necessary to say that you require to be paid in Shah-Jahani rupees, i.e. in new silver, otherwise they will pay you in rupees coined fifteen or twenty years or more, in which there may be up to 4 per cent of loss. For, for those which have not been coined within two years they already demand ½ per cent, or at least ⅛th; and the poor people who do not know how to read the year when they coined these rupees or paisa are subject to be cheated, because they always deduct something from them, one paisa or half a paisa on a rupee, and on the paisa three or four cowries. As for false silver, but little is met with.
6.4.3
If by chance there should be a false rupee in a bag given by a private merchant, it pays better to cut it and to lose it than to say anything about it, because if they hear of it one has to run some risk, the order of the King being that you must return the bag to him who has given it, and it goes thence from one to another until they are able to discover the false coiner, and when one is detected, for sole punishment they merely lop off a finger. If it happens that they are unable to find the false coiner, and that they pronounce him who has given the silver to be not guilty, he is freed on payment of some fine. It is this which yields such large profits to the Changers, for when one receives or when one makes any payment he shows them the silver, and they receive for their commission 1/16th of a rupee per cent. As for the silver which goes out from the sarquet or treasury of the King, there is never anything base in it, for all that goes into it is carefully examined by the Changers of the King, and the great nobles also have their own. Before the silver goes into the treasury they throw it into a large charcoal fire, and when the rupees are red they extinguish the fire by means of water, after which they withdraw them. If any one is found which is not perfectly white, and has the slightest trace of alloy, it is immediately cut. Whenever these rupees enter the treasury they strike them with a punch, which makes a small hole without piercing;
6.4.4
and there are some of them which have seven or eight holes of this kind, i.e. which have entered the treasury seven or eight times. They are all placed by the thousand in sacks with the seal of the grand treasurer, to which is added the number of years since they have been coined. It is in this that the profit consists which the treasurers make, both those of the King and those of the nobles of the kingdom. When one makes a sale it is in new rupees, coined in the same year; but when one comes to receive payment the treasurers desire to make it in old rupees, by which one stands to lose up to 6 per cent; and if one wishes to have new silver, he must resolve to compound with them. On my fifth journey I went to see Sháistá Khán, as I had promised him to do so on the preceding occasion, having pledged myself that he would be the first who should see what I had brought. Immediately on my arrival at Surat I let him know, and I received a command to go to meet him at Choupart, a town of the Deccan to which he had laid siege. Having reached him in a short time, I sold him with but few words the greater part of what I had brought from Europe, and he told me that he awaited from day to day the money which they should send him from Surat to pay the army and to pay me at the same time for that which he had bought from me.
6.4.5
I was unable to believe, however, that this Prince was with so large an army without having much money with him, and I rather thought that he desired to make me lose something on the gold or silver pieces which I should receive for my payment, as he had done on my previous journey. The thing happened as I had foreseen; but for my sustenance and that of my people and cattle, he ordered that they should bring me food in abundance, both evening and morning, and on most days he sent to invite me to eat with him. Ten or twelve days passed, during which I heard no mention of the money for which he waited, and being resolved to take leave of him, I went to his tent. He appeared somewhat surprised, and, regarding me with a sullen countenance, “Wherefore,” said he to me, “do you wish to leave without being paid ? and who would pay you afterwards if you went away without receiving your money ? ” At these words, assuming a look as proud as his: “My King,” I replied, “will cause me to be paid ; for he is so generous that he will pay all his subjects when they have not had satisfaction for what they have sold in foreign countries.” “ And in what manner would thy King recoup himself ? ” replied he, as in a rage.
6.4.6
“ With two or three good vessels of war,” I replied, “ which he will send to the port of Surat or towards its coasts, to await those coming from Mocha.” He appeared stung by this reply, and, not daring to carry his ill-humour further, he at once commanded his treasurer to give me a letter of exchange on Aurangābād. At which I was very glad, because it was a place through which I had to pass in order to go to Golconda, and which, moreover, spared me carriage and the risk to my money. The following day I received my letter of exchange, and took my leave of the Prince, who was no longer angry, and he requested me if I returned to India not to omit to go and see him ; which I did on my sixth and last journey. When I arrived at Surat he was in Bengal, where I went to seek him, and he bought from me the residue of my goods which I had not been able to sell either to the King of Persia or to the Great Mogul. To return to my payment, having arrived at Aurangābād, I went to seek the Grand Treasurer, who had never previously seen me, but he told me that he knew wherefore I had come to see him, that three days previously he had received notice, and that he had already drawn from the treasury the money which he was to pay me. When all the bags required for my payment had been brought, I caused one of them to be opened by my Changer, who saw that it contained rupees on which 2 per cent would be lost.
6.4.7
Upon which I thanked the Treasurer, and told him that I did not understand that sort of thing, that I would send one of my people to complain to Shāistā Khān and ask him to order that I should be paid in new silver, or I would go to reclaim my goods : this I straightway did. But having sent a man to him, and getting no reply by the time that I might have received one, I went to tell the Treasurer that since I had no news from the Prince I was going myself to take back what I had sold. I believe that he had already received instructions as to what he should do, for seeing that I was resolved to start he said he would be grieved by the trouble I was taking, and it would be better that we should agree with one another. In short, after several discussions concerning the 2 per cent which they desired I should lose, I obtained 1 per cent of it ; and I would have lost the other except for the fortunate meeting with a Shroff who had to receive payment of a letter of exchange on Golconda ; for this Shroff, not having money at hand, was very glad to accommodate himself with mine, causing me to receive the same sum in new silver at Golconda at fifteen days’ sight.