Page 238 - Dutch Asiatic Shipping Volume 1

being subdivided into 24 grain). This alloy was more or less the same as that of the Bengal rupee. In addition some silver bars were sent of a 942% fineness; this silver was destined for Siam and the fineness agrees largely to that of the Siamese tical. As for the gold, as early as 1619 the chambers were advised to dispatch gold bars of the alloy of the pagoda. But not until the second half of the eighteenth century was the required alloy of the gold bars exactly prescribed; then gold was shipped of an alloy of 625, 769 and 862.5% (or 15 carat, 18 car. 5lk grain, 20 car. 8V2 grain). The first kind was destined for minting into fanums, struck by the VOC in Negapatnam and Tuticorin among others, the other kinds probably for the Coromandel pagoda and the Javanese ducat respectively.
The VOC also exported markrealen, reals of varying denominations - i.e. single reals,
V2, 2 and 4 reals and of course the most common reals-of-eight - and of poor quality, which were valued by weight. In 1686 the Company for 1 mark (= 246 grams) Sevilla
reals charged 22 guilders and 8 stuiver, for 1 mark Mexican reals 22 guilders and 4 stuiver; this last kind was worth 24 guilders and 3 stuiver in 1755. In Asia the Mexican reals were
in 1755 entered in the accounts at 29 guilders and V2stuiver. Table 45: Coins exported by the VOC
Date minted
Ducaton 1659-1798 Gulden 1681-1800 Schelling 1670-1794 Stuiver 1670-1799
Foreign silver:
Patagon Ducaton Reals of 8
Weight in grams
3.51
Fineness
0.986
Ratio in stuiver
in the Netherlands in Asia
1621 1659 1652 after 1656 risingfrom70to100,inAsiato132
Coin
Dutch gold:
Dukaat
1586-1808 Leeuwendaalder1606-1713
Dutch silver:
Rijksdaalder 1606-1700
27.60 0.750 40 29.03 0.885 50 32.78 0.941
10.61 0.920
4.95 0.583 0.81 0.583
28.10 0.875 47 32.48 0.944 60 27.08 0.950 48
42 42 48 52 52 60
N.B.: Weight, fineness and value of the half ducatoon, the threeguilder and the half guilder and the double stuiver in proportion. The leeuwendaalder is also called kroon, the (Dutch) rijksdaalder also provintiedaalder or, after 1659, bankrijksdaalder, and the ducatoon also zilveren rijder. The patagon mentioned under 'Foreign silver' - also called kruisdaalder of kruisrijksdaalder - and the ducatoon originated from the Southern Netherlands. The real-of-eight was minted in Spain as well as in Spanish America; the weight and fineness given here are those used in the seventeenth century; in the eighteenth century the weight was slightly higher and the fineness slightly lower, circa 27.68 grams
with a fineness of 0.912-0.927.
The stated ratio in stuiver relates to officially established rates. The table shows that after 1656 in Asia a new valuation of the coins was introduced, deviating from the system current in the Republic. Thus the difference came about between the so-called 'light money' in Asia and the 'heavy money' in the Netherlands. See chapter 10, p. 185.
Sources: ARA, VOC 13704; Van Dam, Beschryvinge, vol. 68, 57-59; Enno van Gelder, De Neder- landse munten; Glamann, Dutch-Asiatic trade, 50-72; Scholten, De munten van de Nederlandsche Gebiedsdelen, 22-23.
63 (20) (6) (1)
varying 8
IV4
50 60 63 63 50 60