14 The Initial Coinage of Bengal. [No. 1 



rencies in a given locality, which can scarcely be explained in a more 

 simple and reasonable manner than by assuming the lower description 

 of the conventional estimate piece to have been concurrent with a 

 better description of the same coin, constituting the prevailing and 

 authorized revenue standard of the northern portions of the conquer- 

 ing Moghul's Indian dominions. 



Another important element of all currency questions is the relative 

 rate of exchange of the precious metals inter se.' And this is a divi 

 sion of the enquiry of- peculiar significance at the present moment, 

 when Her Majesty's Government are under pressure by the European 

 interest to introduce gold as a legal tender at a fixed and permanent 

 rate, or, in effect, to supersede the existing silver standard, the single 

 and incontestable measure of value, in which all modern obligations 

 have been contracted, and a metal, whose present market price is, in 

 all human probability, less liable to be affected by over production 

 than that of gold : the bullion value of which latter had already begun 

 to decline in the Bazars of India, simultaneously with the arrival of 

 the first fruits of Australian mining. 



If the contemplated authoritative revolution in the established cur- 

 rency had to be applied to a fully civilized people, there might be 

 less objection to this premature experiment ; but to disturb the deal- 

 ings of an empire, peopled by races of extreme fixity of ideas, to give 

 advantages to the crafty few, to the detriment of the mass of the un- 

 lettered population, is scarcely justified by the exigencies of British 

 trade, and India's well-wishers may fairly advance a mild protest 

 against hasty legislation, and claim for a subject and but little under- 

 stood Nationality, some consideration before the ruling power forces on 

 their unprepared minds the advanced commercial tenets of the cities of 

 London and Liverpool. 



The ordinary rate of exchange of silver against gold in Marco Polo's 

 time (1271-91 a. d.),* maybe inferred to have been eight to one ; 



* The Province of Karaian. " For money they employ the white porcelain 

 shell found in the sea, and these they also wear as ornaments about their necks. 

 Eighty of the shells are equal in value to a saggio of silver, or two Venetian 

 groats, and eight saggi of good silver to one of pure gold." Chap, xxxix. 



The Province of Karazan. " Gold is found in the rivers, both in small 

 particles and in lumps ; and there are also veins of it in the mountains. In 

 consequence of the large quantity obtained, they give a saggio of gold for six 

 saggi of silver. They likewise use the before-mentioned porcelain shells in 

 currency, which, however, are not found in this part of the world, but are 



