ACCOUNT OF JAVA AND BATAVIA.
,191
Some of them well know how to avail of fuch occafions, to the advantage of theirpockets, by taking with them as much merchandize for fale as they can find room forin the fhip, by which they take their palfage.
The coins current at Batavia are the following: the milled Dutch gold ducat,which is worth fix gilders and twelve ftivers : the Japan gold coupangs, of which theold go for twenty-four gilders, and the new for fourteen gilders and eight ftivers : theSpanilh dollar, or piafter, rifes and falls according to the quantity in circulation, or thedegree of demand ; its value is generally between fixty-three and fixty-fix ftivers : themilled filver ducatoon, which is the current coin of the Company, throughout theirpoffefiions, except on the continent of India ; its proportionate value according to theother coins is fixty-fix ftivers ; but in Indian money it goes for eighty, at which rateit is current at Batavia ; at the Cape of Good Hope it is worth feventy-two, and atCochin feventy-five ftivers : the unmilled ducatoon is two ftivers lefs at Batavia : themilled Batavia rupee called the filver derham d’Java, which was formerly coined atBatavia, is made good in the Company’s books at twenty-four ftivers, and in circula-tion it is taken at thirty ; it is the only rupee that goes for fo much at Batavia, and iscurrent at Amboyna, Banda, Ternate, Macaffar, and Malacca , at the fame rate, buton the coaft of Malabar, it is eight per cent, lefs in value than the Surat rupee ; allother rupees generally go for twenty-feven ftivers; the Perfian rupees are the moltcurrent; there are alfo half and quarter rupees in circulation.: the fmaller coins are{killings, dubbeltjes, or two-penny-pieces, and doits ; there are two forts of {killings,the old, which are the fame as are current in Holland, go for fix ftivers, but the new,which are here called Ihip-lkillings, are worth feven and a half: two-penny-pieces,which are old and worn, go for two ftivers, but the new for two ftivers and a half jno other doits are taken in change than thofe that are ftamped with the mark of theEaft India Company, and thefe are equal to a farthing in value : the rix-dollar, whichis the money ufed for accounts in private trade, is a coin, which is worth forty-eightftivers, thus three new or milled ducatoons are equal to five rix-dollars *.
Moft merchants’ goods are calculated at Batavia by picols of one hundred andtwenty-five pounds, Amfterdam weight f, and thefe are fubdivided into a hundredcattis, each weighing one pound and a quarter.
Rice and other grain is meafured by coyangs, which differ in weight. On thereceipt of the rice by the Company at Java, they muft weigh three thouland five hun-dred pounds. They are {hipped to Batavia for three thoufand four hundred, andlanded there for three thoufand three hundred. The warehoufe-keepers difpatch themfor the out-fad'ories for three thoufand two hundred, where they are unloaden for three
* The following is a table of the value in fterling money of the above coins, at the par exchange of fixPer pound ; viz.
jC • s*
/• 2 +
0
or 2
3
7 i
The new ditto
H
8
1
6
6
12
0
12
0
The fdver milled ducatoon
4
0
0
7
3l
The unmilled ditto
3
18
0
7
1
The Spanilh dollar from
3
3
0
5
«•!*
00
to
3
6
0
6
0
The rix-dollar
2
8
0
4
4f
The Batavia rupee
I
10
0
2
8*
Other rupees, about
I
7
0
2
5 i
, T Ric.vud, in his Traits de Commerce, makes the picol,
at Batavia,
equal to u8pb
. Amfterdam weigh
thoufand