THIS BINUA OP JOHOIIE, 
287 
valued is from time to time regulated by the Panghtilu, who in 
this, as in all other matters, consults the principal men of the river. 
The Panghulu then confers with the Batins of the Binuas on the 
Subject, and so manages the discussion as to carry his point. The 
principle on which the sliding scale of prices is managed, is to main¬ 
tain a high value for what is sold to the Binuas, and a low one for 
what is bought from them. When the Binua rice harvest has been 
reaped, they are persuaded that rice is every where so plentiful that 
its price is very small, and that, on the other hand, the price of cloth 
&c. is high. When their stores are exhausted, the price of rice is 
raised as much above, as it was formerly depressed below, that of 
the Singapore market. The result of all the enquiries which I made, 
and of numerous instances of barter of which I was a witness, is that 
the Malays sell the goods which they purchase in Singapore, at ad¬ 
vances of from 100 to 400 per cent on the prices to them, while they 
buy t&ban, camphor, dammar and other produce of the forest at 100 
to 400 per cent under the price which they receive for it in Singapore. 
Thus a voyage of two or three days enables the Malay to double or 
quintuple the value of goods transfered from Singapore to Johore 
and from Johore to Singapore. As the trade is almost entirely by 
barter, the Malays have a double profit on every transaction. But 
they are not satisfied with having established this vulturine system of 
trade. They resort to every indirect mode of enhancing their gains 
that is consistent with the preservation of the trade. They make ad¬ 
vances of goods, and as their debtors are unacquainted with writing 
and accounts, they have little difficulty in exacting more than the 
stipulated return from those whose memories are not very tena- 
ceous) for the return is made in small quantities at a time, as forest 
produce is collected. But the most certain and constant mode of 
defrauding the Binua is in weighing. This is generally done hurri¬ 
edly, and when a pretence is made of doing it more carefully the 
beam is brought into a horizontal position, not by the counter¬ 
poise of the weights, but by the finger of the Malay. This mode of 
weighing has now become so prescriptive that although the Binuas 
generally are aware that the Malays do not weigh fairly, and some 
have even acquired so much knowledge of the balance (Chinese) as 
to point out in what the fraud consists, the Malay laughs it off, insists 
it is all right, and delivers the article to one of his attendants or tosses 
it into his canoe. To shew more definitely the extent to which the 
Malays take advantage of the ignorance of the Binuas I add some 
statements of the prices of articles at different places. 
