APPEXDIX I. 



^'OTES ON COMMERCIAL MATTERS AT ZANZIBAR IN 

 THE YEARS 1857 1859. 



There was a great dearth of small change on the 

 Island, and until a. d. 1849 broken sums were paid in 

 Mtama or holcus grain, of which exceedingly variable 

 measures constituted the dollar. The system reminds us 

 of the Mexican cacao money and the almonds of British 

 India. When Capt. Guillain (iii. 376 — 398) says ' il existe 

 aux Kiloua une monnaie de compte, nommee Doti/ he 

 confounds metallic specie with the African substitute of 

 cotton cloth, the Doti, as will appear, measuring 8 cubits 

 = 12 feet, more or less. * Shroffing ' was in early days a 

 profitable trade : the Kojahs and Banyans offered the 

 ruler, in. later years, a considerable annual sum if he 

 would retain the primitive currency. This infancy of the 

 circulating system endured till 1840, when Sayyid Said 

 imported from Bombay through H. B. M.'s consul some 

 S5000 worth of the small copper coin called pice. 

 Here there are no mints, of which some 16 exist at 

 Maskat — private shops to which any man can carry his 

 silver, see it broken up, and pay for the coining whatever 

 the workmen may charge. At first 132 and even 133 

 pice were the change for a German crown : presently the 

 shroffs, by buying up the copper, raised its value to 98. 



