1S60.] Asiatic Sovereigns and Paper Currency. 193 



&k.~>\y j>Uif &i\j=*. j SS <*3jji JJ^a. i£bj oJ> ^jj-u &\j^ j| l^sr" 

 ^^c di-j *->^j«> i>*^ ^tkLj i^J-^jS A5" ^jf ci^a. J| j ^J ,j«a} <x£aj 



" Another project of the Sultan's, which brought ruin upon the 

 empire, was his interference with buying and selling, and issuing 

 copper money. Since Sultan Muhammad in his lofty ambition had 

 conceived the idea of subduing the inhabited part of the world, and 

 for this impracticable design were required countless followers and 

 attendants, and these could not be procured without ready money, 

 and the treasury laboured under emptiness in consequence of the 

 royal munificence, — the Sultan for all these reasons invented his 

 copper money ; and he issued a decree that in all purchases and sales 

 these copper coins should be current as those of gold and silver had 

 been. In consequence of this measure every Hindu's house became 

 a private mint, and the Hindus of the various cities of the empire 

 had lakhs and crores of these copper pieces coined. With these they 

 paid their tribute, and with these they bought horses and arms and 

 costly goods of every description ; and the ranas, district officers and 

 sircars gained immense fortunes, but with serious detriment to the 

 empire. Nor was it long ere the distant provinces refused to take 

 these copper coins in exchange ; and even there, where the king's 

 edict was feared, a tanka of gold rose to the value of a hundred 

 copper pieces. Every goldsmith coined copper pieces in his own 

 house, and the treasury became filled with the coins. At last the 

 copper money became so depreciated that it was reckoned only like 

 shingle or potsherds, and the value of the old coins from the exces- 

 sive estimation in which they were held, was increased four or even 

 five fold. When such ruin everywhere fell upon commerce, and the 

 copper tokens became viler than bricks, and were of no use whatever, 

 Sultan Muhammad repealed his edict, and issued a new order, though 

 with the fiercest wrath within his heart,^that every one who had 

 the copper coin, might bring it to the treasury and exchange it for 

 the old gold money. Forthwith thousands of men from different 

 quarters, who had thousands of these tokens in their houses, and 

 utterly sick of them had tossed them into holes and corners with 

 the pots and pans, brought them to the treasury and received gold 



