Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c11.2.2

c11.2.2

The Zamorin of Calicut correctly gauged European taste when he sent his famous letter to the King of Portugal by Vasco da Gama, saying that "In my land is an abundance of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper and precious stones," and asking for specie in exchange. Pliny, who is fond of indulging in trite homilies on Roman extravagance, is right in complaining of the drain upon Roman finance caused by the Indian trade. India produced very little coinage (and what she did produce was mostly imitated from Greek and Roman coins), and her great gold-mines in Dardistān appear to have been practically worked out, probably by the exorbitant demands of her Persian and other early rulers. The specie received from Europe was absorbed as it is very largely to-day. The huge hoards of coins found in the Madras Presidency shew what became of the money. This is especially true of the first five Roman emperors, for, if we may judge from the Roman coins unearthed in India, the trade in Indian luxuries, which reached its height in the reign of Nero, began after this to decline, partly owing to civil war, but still more on account of the severer style of living encouraged by Vespasian and the Antonines¹. Of the earlier emperors, 612 gold, and 1187 silver coins have been unearthed, exclusive of hoards variously described as "pots full" and "cooly loads." By far the greater part of these huge numbers belongs to the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius.