Use of Coivri-s/h-I/s for Ciirreiiiy, Aiiiiililx, et,: 167 



2,560 cowries ; in 1 S3 3, 6,400 cowries ; and in 1845,6,500 

 cowries. IMajor Ronnell, who was in Silhet in 1767-S, 

 spcikiuL^' of the Ci)wr\-nione}-, remarks : " 1 fouutl no other 

 currency of an}- kiiul in the conntry : and upon an occasion, 

 when an increase in the revenue of the ])ro\-incc was 

 enforccel, several boat loads (not less than 50 tons each) 

 were collected and sent down the lUnranipooter to Dacca." 

 As late as iSoi the revenues of the British district of 

 Silhet " were collected in cowries, w hich was also the 

 (general medium ol all pecuniar\- transactions, and a con- 

 siderable expense was then incurred b}- Go\einmcnt in 

 effecting their conversion into bullion." Thomas, op. cit., 

 })[). I 10 — III footnotes). 



Lovell Reeve, in his " Concholoy;ia Systematica,'""" 

 mentions that " a L^entleman residin<j some time since at 

 Cuttack is said to have paid for the erection of his 

 bungalow cntireK- in these cowries [6^. //io>h-/,i\ The 

 building cost him about 4,000 rupees sicca (£400 sterling; ; 

 and as si.Kty-four of these shells are equivalent in value 

 to one 'pice,' and sixty-four pice to a rupee sicca, he paid 

 for it with above sixteen millions of these shells." 



In the Deccan, up to the thirteenth centur\', but \cw 

 coins of an\- kind seem to liave been minted, the currency 

 appearing to consist almost entire!}- of cowries (Del Mar, 

 op. cit., p. loS). 



in earl\- times, cowries, it is thought, were brought to 

 India from tlie Pliilippincs and Borneo, as well as from 

 the island of liima near Macassar fCelebes); in later 

 times the}- were obtained from the Laccadive and 

 Maldive Islands. Of the latter, the .\rab Masudi. in the 

 first half of the loth centur}-, remarked tliat the tjueeii 

 had no other kind of money than the cowries, which were 



i-.'j KtevL, " ConclioloL^ia Syslcm.Uica," LdihI.mi, 1S42. vol. ii., \k 2t»2 

 fool note. 



