chap, xviii PAGODAS: MONEY-CHANGERS 71
are
very dangerous, they generally remain at Golkonda, where those who work
the mines have their correspondents to whom they send the diamonds.
Payments are made there with old pagodas, well worn, and coined many
centuries ago by different Princes, who reigned in India before the
Musalmans gained a footing in the country. These old pagodas are worth
4 1/2 rupees,1 i. e. 1 rupee more than the new, although
they do not contain more gold, and consequently do not weigh more ;
this will be a cause of astonishment if I do not explain the reason.
It is that the Shroffs or Changers, in order to induce the King not to
have them recoined, pay him annually a large sum, because they
themselves thereby derive a considerable profit; for the merchants
never receive these pagodas without the aid of one of these Changers to
examine them, some being defaced, others of low standard, others of
short weight, so that if one accepted them without this examination he
would lose much, and would have the trouble to return them, or perhaps
lose from 1 to even 5 or 6 per cent., in addition to which he must pay
the Shroffs Jth per cent, for their trouble. When you pay the miners,
they will also receive these pagodas only in presence of the Changer,
who points out to them the good and bad, and again takes his Jth per
cent. But to save time, when you desire to make a payment of 1,000 or
2,000 pagodas, the Changer, when receiving his dues, encloses them in a
little bag, on which he places his seal, and when you wish to pay a
merchant for his diamonds you take him, with the bag, to the Changer,
who, seeing his own seal intact, assures him that he has examined all
the coins, and will be responsible if any do not prove good.
As
for rupees, the miners take indifferently those of the Great Mogul and
those of the King of Golkonda, because those coined by this King would
have been the coinage of the Great Mogul if these monarchs had remained
on good terms.
The natives of India have more intelligence and subtlety than one thinks. As the pagodas are small, thick pieces
1 i. e. 10s. 1 1/2d. Much information on the various kinds of pagodas is collected in Madras Manual of Administration, iii. 642 f.
