on\~DKc. 1856.] 
Notes on Indian Currencies, 
49 
Accordingly in the charter granted by Charles II. to the E. I. 
jg,^ ^ P Company in 1677, besidesj having their old privi- 
leges confirmed to them, authority was granted 
them to coin money (not resembling British money) at Bombay 
and other places in India, with respect to wRich Mr. Kayes says, 
(p. 71) — " The establishment of a mint had long before been re- 
" commended to the Company by their servants abroad ; and it 
" had been much considered and discussed but had never before 
» 
" taken practical shape. It was noV however actually to pass in- 
" to a fact by the express j^ermission of the crown. The Company 
regarded it simply as an instrument of trade but their servants 
five and twenty years iiefore had been looking at the matter of a 
" Tankshall* in the Deccan ii* connexion with the question of war. 
" The Factors at Rdjapore, recommending the Company to coin 
" money, wrote in 1659 " For your worships may please^ to know 
** that all these artificial mines of money which were made in time 
" of peace are now exhausted through a civil war — will it not be 
necessary to have a Tankshall in the Deccan and a coin that will 
" be current to carry on a trade here, as large as you please during 
your war with India and which will continue no longer than you 
" please ? — Then judge if you would not make the Tankshall 
" cry as mournful to the king of India's ears as the liver, the 
*' fountain of the blood, should complain in a natural body, and 
" then what conditions you may bring him to is easy to foretell." 
Many years would naturally elapse^' before the Company's coin- 
age took an important part in the general circulating power of 
the country. Each district wedded to its own currency would rea- 
sonably be jealous of a foreign coin, and resist its introduction at 
any rate at first. It was probably far into the'^lSth century be- 
fore the Company's coinage took its place^among [the other cur- 
rencies of the country and performed a'material part of the duty 
of circulation. 
Mr. Dil]on| in his " East Indies" speaking of the natives in 
1698 A D Malabar alludes to the currency of that part of the 
world in 1698, "^To everyjone of these natives you 
* From t^vo Sanscrit words signifying a coin and a haV . 
