338 cook's first voyage dec. 



are very considerable ; and that which is exacted of 

 them for liberty to wear their hair, is by no means 

 the least. They are paid monthly, and to save the 

 trouble and charge of collecting them, a flag is hoisted 

 upon the top of a house in the middle of the town 

 when a payment is due, and the Chinese have expe- 

 rienced that it is their interest to repair thither with 

 their money without delay. 



The money current here consists of ducats, worth 

 a hundred and thirty-two stivers ; ducatoons, eighty 

 stivers ; imperial rix-dollars, sixty ; rupees of Bata- 

 via, thirty ; schellings, six ; double cheys, two sti- 

 vers and a half; and doits, one fourth of a stiver. 

 Spanish dollars, when we were here, were at five 

 shillings and fivepence ; and we were told, that they 

 were never lower than hve shillings and fourpence, 

 even at the Company's warehouse. For English 

 guineas we could never get more than nineteen shil- 

 lings upon an average ; for though the Chinese would 

 give twenty shillings for some of the brightest, they 

 would give no more than seventeen shillings for those 

 that were much worn. 



It may, perhaps, be of some advantage to strangers 

 to be told that there are two kinds of coin here, of 

 the same denomination, milled and unmilled, and 

 that the milled is of most value. A milled ducatoon 

 is worth eighty stivers ; but an unmilled ducatoon is 

 worth no more than seventy-two. All accounts are 

 kept in rix-dollars and stivers, which, here at least, 

 are mere nominal coins, like our pound sterling. 

 The rixdollar is equal to forty-eight stivers, about 

 four shillings and sixpence English currency. 



