17 



fined and flogged. Patna was one of the largest towns in 

 India. The houses, however, were not better than in the 

 majority of other towns and were nearly all roofed with thatch 

 or bamboo. In Dacca the houses were miserable huts made of 

 "bamboo and mud. Sales were conditional on payments being 

 made in coins coined during the current year. Foreign coins 

 brought into the country had to be taken to the king's mint 

 and there recoined, the expenses and seigniorage both in Persia 

 and India amounting to ten per cent. These regulations were, 

 however, generally evaded. In places where there were no 

 money-changers, people would not take silver coins without 

 putting them in the fire to test whether the silver was good. 

 Bitter almonds and cowries were used as small change. Al- 

 monds were brought from Persia, and these were so bitter that 

 there was no danger of children eating them. Thirty-five or 

 forty almonds went to the paisa which was ^^ of a rupee. Of 

 cowries, from 50 to 80 were exchangeable for a paisa^ accord- 

 ing to the distance of the place from the coast. " In India," 

 says Tavernier, ''a village must be very small if it has not a 

 money-changer, whom they call shroff y who acts as broker to 

 make remittances of money and issue letters of exchange. As 

 in general these changers have an understanding with the 

 Governors of provinces, they enhance at their will the rate of 

 exchange of the rupee for the paisa and of the paisa for these 

 shells. All the Jews who occupy themselves with money in 

 the empire of the Grand Seignior pass for being very sharp, 

 but in India they would be scarcely apprentices to these money- 

 changers." Merchants were frequently plundered by the 

 rajahs of the territories through which they had to pass. 

 The Eajah of Kalabagh was oppressive to merchants, but since 

 Aurangzebe came to the throne, says Tavernier, " he cut oi! 

 his head and those of a large number of his subjects. They 

 have set up towers near the town, on the high road, and these 

 towers are pierced all round by several windows where they 

 have placed in each the head of a man at every two feet. On 

 my last journey in 1665, it was. not long since the execution 

 had taken place when I passed by Kalabagh, for all the heads 

 were still entire and gave out an unpleasant odour." The 

 dispensation of justice was very summary and unencumbered 

 with forms. There were no jails, for the custom of the country 

 was not to keep men in prison. Immediately the accused was 

 taken he was examined and sentence pronounced on him and 

 executed without delay. Tavernier went to see Meer Jumla, 

 Nabob of Gundikot, a place in the Cuddapah district, who was a 

 General under the King of Golgonda at first and subsequently 

 under EnSperor Aurangzebe, and to whom he had shown some 



