[The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago by John Biddulph]@TWC D-Link book
The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago

CHAPTER XI
34/78

Pounds sterling, Pagodas, Rupees, Fanams, Xeraphims, Laris, Juttals, Matte, Reis, Rials, Cruzadoes, Sequins, Pice, Budgerooks, and Dollars of different values were all brought into the official accounts.

In 1718, the confusion was increased by a tin coinage called Deccanees.[1] The conversion of sums from one coinage to another, many of them of unstable value, must have been an everlasting trouble.[2] In August we find Harvey writing to the Council to say that he had at Tellicherry a chest of pillar dollars weighing 289 lbs.

3 ozs.

10 dwts., which he requests may be paid into the Company's cash there, and in return a chest of dollars may be given him at Bombay.
His young wife doubtless assisted him in his complicated accounts, and gained some knowledge of local trade.

It must have been a wonderful delight to her to escape from the dulness of Carwar and mix in the larger society of Bombay, and she must have realized with sadness the mistake she had made in marrying a deformed man old enough to be her grandfather, at the solicitation of her parents.


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