and Queda are of tin. Those of the latter place go under the name of tra, which is,
however, only the word “ stamp” or “ impression.” Of these 160 are filed on a
filament of ratan, of which 8 strings or 1280 coins are considered equivalent to a hard
dollar. In Bali and Lomboc the currency consists of Chinese zinc coins with a hole in
the middle for filing them on a string, each string having 200, and five of these called
a that is, “ one thousand,” being the highest denomination of money in the
reckoning of the inhabitants of these islands. Their value rises and falls in the
market according to the supply, like any ordinary article of merchandise ; so that a
Spanish dollar will sometimes buy 800 of them, but often as few as 500 only. All these
small coins are generally known by the Javanese name of pichis, corrupted pitis by
the Malays, a name which had extended to the Philippines. This was the name of
the ancient coin of Java, and is now a frequent appellative for money in^ general, as
well as for small change. Chinese coins of this description were found in the ruins
of the ancient Singapore, of as early a time as the 10th century, as will be presently
stated; and we have the authority of the first Europeans that visited Borneo Proper, the
companions of Magellan, that they were the only money of that part of the Archipelago.
“ The money,” says Pigafetta, “ which the Moors use m this country is
of brass, with a hole for filing it. On one side only there are four characters,
which represent the great king of China. They call it pieis.”—Primo Yiaggio,
p. 121.
The only native country of the Archipelago in which a coin of the precious metals
seems ever to have been coined, is Achin. This is of gold of the weight of nine
grains, and of about the value of 14d. sterling; to which European traders have
given the name of a mace, a corruption of the Malay mas, itself a corruption of the
Sanscrit, masha, the name of an Indian weight. All the coins of this description
that have been seen are inscribed with Arabic characters, and bear the names
of the sovereigns under whom they were struck, so that they are comparatively
m With the exception of the gold coin now mentioned, evidently suggested by the
Hindus, none of the nations of the Archipelago had any coin of the precious metals.
"When serving in Java between 1811 and 1817, a small earthen vase of silver coins
was excavated in the province of Samarang, of which I received specimens. These
consisted of small button-shaped pieces convex on one side and concave on the other,
and having rude characters on both sides, but too much defaced to be legible. Mi.
Marsden, to whom I presented them, and who was at the time engaged in preparing
his work on Oriental coins, pronounced them to bear much resemblance to some
ancient Hindu coins in his own possession.
Previous to the arrival of Europeans, the natives of the Archipelago generally,
had no other coin than the small bits of copper, brass, tin, or zinc, already named.
The Javanese appear to have coined some of their own money, as we find from many
examples excavated from old temples and other places. These contain impiessions
of scenic figures, such as are still represented in their dramas called wayang or
shadows, but having no dates, and, indeed, no written character, until after the
adoption of Mahometanism. But besides these native coins there have been found
in Java and elsewhere ancient Chinese and even Japanese coins. In Singapore, after
our occupation, there were excavated some Chinese coins from among quantities of
Chinese pottery. One of these bore the name of a Chinese emperor, whose death
corresponded to the year of our time 967; of another to 1067, and of a third to 1085,
so that it may be confidentially asserted that an intercourse, direct or indirect,
existed between China and Singapore as early as the 10th and 11th centuries.
The absence of all other current coin than such as are now mentioned, previous to
the arrival of Europeans is testified by the early Portuguese historians, and this, even
in Malacca, the most considerable trading emporium of the Archipelago. The enterprising
Alboquerque before he quitted that place after its conquest, proceeded at once
to supply this deficiency, actuated at the same time, in a good measure, by his hostility
to the religion of its previous rulers. “ Having,” says De Barros, “ done these things
for the security of the city (built a fortification and a church from materials furnished
bv the tombs of ancient Malay kings), he did other things for its grandeur and for its
commerce, and this, as if at the request of the people. With this view, he ordered
money to be coined, for in the country, gold and silver passed only as merchandise,
and during the reign of King Mahommed, there was no other coined money than
that made from tin, which served only for the ordinary transactions of the market.”
Decade 2, Book 2, Chap. 2. Castaghneda is more full in his account of the transaction.
“ As,” says he, “ there was no money in Malacca except that of the Moors,
„Wlpred some to be coined, not only that he might extinguish
2 ? ^ o T S that a coin might be struck with the stamp and
the Moorish c01“>b“ °r “ ^ d taking on this subject the opinion of the Gentile
arms of Hindus), and other honourable men, dwellers m the city, he
Chetins (the T g that a tin coinage should be struck. Of the one small com
commanded f ^ ordered tw0 to be made into one, to which he gave the name of
called calx!?),csiJ ’ck another coin, which he named soldo, consisting of ten dmheiros,
^ « tti rd which he called bastardo, consisting of ten soldos. And as there existed
no coin of gold or of silver, for the merchants made their sales and purchases by
“ e i Z . the precious metals, the governor-general resolved, with the advice of the
peraons above mentioned, to coin gold and silver money. To the gold com he gave
the name of Catholicos, and it weighed 1000 reas, and to the silver that of Malaques.
Both were of the purest metal that could be smelted.” Vol. 2.
Even the small coin now described seems to have been confined to the more
advanced nations, for many of the ruder tribes had no money at alL In this state
were the inhabitants of Celebes, some of whom now understand its use so well,—
most of the people of Borneo and all those of the Philippine islands. I t is remarkable,
indeed, that the Malays of Brunai, or Borneo Proper, even to the present day, have
no other money than the small tokens already mentioned using blue cloths of Bengal
and Madras as their larger standard of exchange. Some employed salt, cakes of bees-wax,
and similar commodities, as a standard of exchange; but most of the civilised nations
used gold dust, estimated by weight and touch, a practice m which it « evident from
the derivation of the terms connected with them, that they were initiated by the
Hindus, most probably the Telingas of the Coromandel coast. Thus, we have the
scarlet weighing-bean rakit, from the Sanscrit raktaka, mas from masha tad from
talaka in the same language, with mutu the touch of gold, from the Telmga. The
values of the denominations are all Hindu. Thus 24 of the scarlet beans each 2? grams
trov make a mas, and 16 mas make a tail, while the touch is a scale of 10, like that
of the Hindus. A colony of the Hindus of Telingana still exists m Malacca, whose
p rofessionitistotry gold by the touch and to refine it.
In the collections of the customary laws of the Malays, the mulcts imposed are
alwavs specified in the denominations thus named. The following are examples
taken from the collection of those of Malacca, supposed to have been compiled under
the direction of the first prince that adopted the Mahommedan religion “ If a man
attempt to seduce a married woman, and her husband make complaint, the magistrate
shall cause the offender to humble himself before the husband by making to him an
obeisance in open court, and if he refuse, then he shall be fined 10 tails and one paa,
(i) or less, at the option of the magistrate. If a man attempt to seduce a married
woman and the husband kill him, the slayer shall be fined 5 tails and 1 paa, for the
offender only attempted to seduce, which is not a justifiable cause of homicide,
excepting always, however, in the case of men of exalted rank. If a man attempt to
seduce an unmarried woman, and her parents complain, the offender shall be fined 2
tails and 1 paa, and if the parties appear a suitable match, the magistrate shall cause
them to be married, the offender paying to the parents the customary pecuniary
consideration. If a man attempt to seduce a female slave, the property of another,
he shall be fined 5 mas, but Bhould he have cohabited with her, the mulct shall be
double that amount. If a man deflower the slave of another, he shall be fined
10 mas, for he has committed violence. If a man deflower a free unmarried woman,
the magistrate shall call the offender before him, and direct him to marry her, which,
if he refuse, he shall be fined 3 tails and 1 paa, and pay to the parents, moreover, the
customary consideration.” * , t.
There is no word for “ coin" in any of the languages of the Archipelago. lo r
money, the Malay and Javanese name is uwang, abbreviated wang, but the Sanscrit
word banda is used in both languages, and yatra, also Sanscrit, in Javanese. Uwang
or wang, in Malay, signifies also “ the palace,” and may, possibly, be the source from
which the term for money is derived, in something like the manner in which our own
coin is called “ a sovereign.” Both the Malays and Javanese use also the name of
their small coin pitis or pichis for money generally, but wang is the common name
throughout the Malay Archipelago. In the Tagala of the Philippines, however,
money is expressed by the word salapa, and in the Bisayaof the same group by pilak,
the first of these words being, no doubt, the salaka of the Javanese, and the last the
perak of the Malays, both signifying silver. This is exactly the same proceeding as
that of the modern European languages that use the Latin word for silver for the
same purpose.