'20 E. H. C. WALSH ON 



Maharajah, but must desire that the Goorkhas would continue to supply them with the 

 adulterated coin." 



" Nine or ten years elapsed in this negociation between the two governments, 

 without their being able to fix on any plan of accommodation. At length the Goorkha 

 envoy proposed that, as they could not stop the circulation of the base coin with 

 which they had been supplied, they should, at least, establish a just rate of exchange 

 between the base and pure coinage, to the end that the merchants of either country 

 might stand in their commercial transactions on the same footing as formerly. The 

 Bhootias, however, would by no means consent to such a regulation ; but, on the con- 

 trary, absolutely directed that the base and genuine money should be considered, in all 

 negociations of trade, as one and the same ; the consequence of which was that for three 

 or four years there was no sort of traffic carried on between the two countries. The cir- 

 culation of the Nepaulian coin accordingly ceased {i.e., in Tibet). The Goorkha, never- 

 theless, continuing to retain his friendly disposition towards the Bhootias, endeavoured 

 to prevail on them to depute some respectable person to the common boundary, there 

 to meet and, in concert with deputies from Nepaul, devise some arrangement for the 

 mutual benefit of the two states, as, without a speedy adjustment of the matter, it 

 was evident that the trade of the two countries must be inevitably ruined. The Bhoo- 

 tias, however, were so far from listening to this reasonable proposal, that they, on the 

 contrary, sent word vauntingly to the Goorkha that they had constructed a new road 

 through the plain or valley of Tingri ; that they were establishing a post on the com- 

 mon frontier ; and that they had assembled an army of 125,000 men and that, if the 

 Goorkha wished for war, he was welcome to advance."' 



The profits made by the Nepal Government on the silver coinage for Tibet are said 

 by Kirkpatrick to have been a lakh of rupees annually. 2 He adds, " It is to be observed 

 that all silver brought into Nepaul from Tibet, in the way of commerce, must be car- 

 ried to the mint at Khatmanda, no silver bullion being allowed to pass into Hindostan. 

 In exchange for his bullion the merchant receives Nepaul rupees, the Government de- 

 riving a profit of twelve per cent, from the transaction, four per cent, being charged 

 on account of coinage and eight arising from the alloy of the rupee." 



li With respect to gold, it has usually been a monopoly in the hands of Govern- 

 ment, who obliged the traders from Tibet to sell it at the mint at the rate of eight 

 rupees per tolah, whence the Ticksali 3 retails it sometimes at the advanced price of 

 fourteen rupees per tolah." 4 



So, altogether, the Newar Government made a large profit out of their monopoly 

 of the coinage for Tibet. 



Since the Gorkha conquest, Nepal has not again coined for Tibet, though, since 

 the conclusion of the war, the Nepalese-Gorkha mohars have passed freely current in 

 Tibet along with the Tibetan currency and are called cho-tang or ' ' tang-kas for cut- 

 ting " owing to there being the tang-ka that is generally sub-divided. The examples 

 on Plates III(A) and III(B), figs. 12, 13 and 14, are all portions of Goorkha tang-kas. 



1 Op. cit., pp. 339-340. 2 op. cit., p. 211. 3 A Nepalese official. + Op. cit., p. 211-212. 



