HISTORY OF CURRENCY
IN THE
BRITISH COLONIES. Straits Settlements.*
Of the three Settlements which unite to form this Colony, Singapore is the chief at the present day. It was also the chief in the loth century according to Joao de Barros, who, writing in 1553,** expressly states—in words which aptly depict the present condition of Singapore—that " before the foundation of Malacca, at this same Singapura . . . flocked together all the navigators of the seas of India from West to East." f
With the beginning of the 16th century Malacca, in the hands of the Portuguese, rose to be the great entrepot for European trade in the far East, a position which half a century later was partly shared by the Philippines. And it is of interest to note that, speaking of " Melequa" in 1498, the " Roteiro da Viagem da Vasco da Gama " records that the native money was composed of the staple commodity of the Straits, namely, tin. J With the arrival of the Portuguese, however, and with the discovery of the Philippines by the Spaniards, § silver coin—and more particularly the dominant Spanish dollar—established a supremacy in the Straits which, as the trade has moved eastwards, has been retained and strengthened by the Mexican dollar, the lineal descendant of the old Spanish dollar. It is a far cry from the beginnings of Portuguese colonisation at Malacca to the rise of British rule in what are now the Straits Settlements. In the interval Malacca, like many other Portuguese Colonies, had passed from Portuguese into Dutch hands ; and its trade was already on the wane. The first British possession was not Malacca, but Pulau-Pinang, which was re-christened Prince of Wales Island by the East India Company, on its cession in 1786.
* I am indebted to Mr. W. Maxwell, Colonial Secretary, for valuable information
respecting the currency of this Colony.
** Decadas da Asia.
| Curious to a modern reader is the statement ofA. Hamilton in his " New
Account of the East Indies " (1727) :—" In Anno 1703 I called at Johore on
my way to China, and he treated me very kindly and made me a present of
the Island of Sincapure ; hut I told him it could be of no use to a private
person, though a proper place for a company to settle a colony in, lyin°- in
the centre of trade, and being accommodated with good rivers (! !) and safe
liarbours, so conveniently situated that all winds served shipping, both to ^o
out and come in."
I " Tin of which they make money ; but the money is of large size and little
value, so that it takes three farzalas of it to make a crusado." Tin coins are
still in use in Malay States of the East Coast of the Peninsula (Pahang, &c).
The tin and lead coins of Achin are described in '* Recherches sur les
Monnaies des Indigenes de l'Archipel Indien et de la Peninsule Malai" " bv
Millies (La Have, 1871).
§ See under Hong Kong, page 371.
For this settlement, which soon tended further to oust Malacca as a commercial entrepot, the Company in 1787 and 1788 struck a silver coinage consisting of rupees, with half and quarter rupees, and copper cents, halfcents and quarter cents, a further issue of which was fruitlessly recommended by Lieut.-Governor Farquhar in 1805.* There were also " pice," here usually of tin. For, on 22nd March 1809 a Government advertisement states that, " Whereas large quantities of spurious pice are now in circulation in this Settlement, and Government having ordered a new coinage of pice to the amount of 4,000 dollars ; which with those that have been before been coined at different times, by order of Government, will be sufficient for the purpose of general circulation ; notice is hereby given that on and after the first of next month no pice will be received into the treasury of this island, except such as have been coined by the orders of Government, as before mentioned, so that 100 of which (sic) pice shall not weigh less than 4f catties of pure tin." Though the Company had established the rupee as the standard coin in Penang, the trade relations of the settlement constrained the mercantile community to adopt as their standard, not the Indian coin, but the universal Spanish dollar, the coin familiar
to the conservative races with whom they had commerce. Therefore, from the earliest days of Penang, the dollar, not the rupee, was the recognised standard of value. Writing of this island, Kelly says, in his " Universal Cambist " of 1825 :
—
" Accounts are kept in Spanish dollars, copangs,f and pice, 10 pice making a copang, and 10 copangs one Spanish dollar. The current pice are coined in the island ; they are pieces of tin, 16 of which weigh the catty, or 1^ lb. English. On the exchange of dollars into pice there is a loss of 2 per cent. ; on dollars without
the King's head,! 10 per cent. ; and from 5 to 10 per cent, on all dollars defaced (i.e. ' chopped. '") §
The old " Carolus," or " Pillar Dollar,"|| of Spain is to this day the standard coin in certain of the neighbouring Malay and Siamese- Malay States. In Achin and in the States of Raman, Lege, Patani, and (to a less extent) Kelantan, none but pillar dollars are accepted by the natives.
o Journal of the Indian Archipelago, v. 418. In 1810 the Royal Mint
coined 25 tons of copper for Penang into pieces weighing respectively, 160
grains and 80 grains, and therefore comparable with the cent and half-cent
of 1847. In 1813-14 there was a tin coinage issut-d in Java hy the British
Government. See Netscher Moneten van Nied. Indie ( Batavia, 18(53).
f This word is still used in the island of Penang to signify 10 cents of a
dollar, though it is unknown in the neighbouring Settlements of Singapore
and Malacca. The Memorandum of 180.5 by Lieutenant-Governor Farquhar
(Journ. Ind. Arch., v. 418) speaks of u doublekies or cupangs," the
" doubleky " being the Dutch coin of 2 stuvvers, or 10 duits.
% Le., " Republican" dollars struck in Mexico, &c, after 1810. Compare
the earlier preference of the Chinese for the old Spanish coins at Hong Kong.
§ Atkins mentions copper '• cents, half-cents, and 2-cents" as having been
coined for Prince of Wales Island in 1825 to 18 18, presumably on the model
of the coinage of 1810.
I The Malays, like the Arabs of North Africa (see page 301), call these
coins " cannon dollars," mistaking the Pillars of Hercules for the recognised
pioneers of European civilisation.
As to Malacca, which after being restored to the Dutch in 1818 had been finally taken over by the East India Company in 1825, Kelly states that " accounts are kept in rix-dollars of 8 schillings of 48 slivers ; the stiver is subdivided into 4 duits.*
The rix-dollar is an imaginary money in which all contracts for goods are made ; but the principal current coins are rupees,f Dutch schillings, Dubbeltjes, 2-stiver pieces, and doits. The Spanish dollar is from 25 to 40 per cent, better than the rixdollar of account; hence at a medium the rix-dollar is worth 3s. 4c?. sterling. A Dutch ducatoon passes for 13 schillings; an English crown for 10 schillings; a Bombay or Surat rupee for 5 schillings ; a Madras or Arcot rupee for 4 schillings, more or less. A stamped Japan copang J passes for 10 rix-dollars. It was in 1826 that, Singapore having been ceded finally in 1824, the three settlements of Malacca, Penang, and Singapore were united under one government with its seat at Penang. Not until 1837 did Singapore supplant Penang. The currency of the Straits Settlements is thus described in Low's " Dissertation on Penang, &c," in 1836 :—" The dollar is the favourite coin in the Straits. It exchanges in the bazaars for a number varying from 100 up to 120 pice. At present it is pretty steady at 106. Indian rupees are also in circulation, but gold coins are hardiy ever seen. There are also half dollars, and the divisions of the Sicca rupee. A Sicca rupee exchanges in the bazaar for 50 pice on an average." And, similarly, Newbold,
in his " Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca" (London, 1839), after mentioning that the Spanish dollar was the merchants' standard, and that Indian coins were in circulation, goes on to say that " guilders and half-guilders, and other Dutch coins are disappearing " (he is probably referring here to Malacca in particular). " The most current copper coins are the cent, the half and quarter cent, the doit, the wang, the wang bhara, § and Indian pice." In 1835 the Company revised its currency legislation for the
whole of its territories, which included the Straits Settlements, and made no exception in favour of the dollar-using colony when enforcing the establishment of the rupee as the standard coin, with pice in subsidiary circulation.
° 5 doits went to the stu^ver of Holland, as against 4 to the stuyver of
Dutch India.
f In Dutch India the guilder or florin was, and is to this day, spoken of as
a "rupee ;" so that Kelly's statement need not refer to Indian coins, though
the position of the word " Dutch " after " rupees " points this way.
X This gold coin of Japan is not to be confused with the copper coins of 1 and
2 capangs coined for Malacca in 1835 by the East India Company. Marsden's
Malay Dictionary of 1812, says " keping '' is "a copper cuin, 400 of which
are equal to a Spanish doilar."
§ '• These are Malay words. The wang was the Netherlands Indian stijver = 4 duits, and the wang bhara was the European stijver, = 5 duits. Twentytwo
years ago, when I was magistrate of Malacca, I often heard the expression
wang bhara used to signify 2\ cents of a dollar, though there was no corresponding
coin. This is similar to the use of the word Kapang in Penang,"
(Note communicated by Mr. W. Maxwell),
The first concession which
the Company made to the requirements of Straits currency was
in 1847, when by Act No VI. of that year it was provided that
the Indian Regulations " shall not be deemed to apply to copper
currency of the Settlements of Penang, Singapore, and Malacca.
From and after 1st January 1848 the following copper coins onlv
shall be received at or issued from any Government Treasury
within the said Settlements (i) acent, weighing 144 grains troy; (ii)
a half-cent, weighing 72 grains ; and (iii) a quarter-cent, weighing
36 grains." These copper coins* were to be legal tender only
for fractions of a dollar, and " the circulation in the said Settlements
after the said day of all copper coins or tokens, not being
the authorised le^al coinage of any British or foreign Government,
is prohibited," under penalty of not more than Us. 10.
But. this concession was withdrawn in 1855. The preamble of
Act No. XVII. of that year reads as follows : " Whereas the
Company's rupee is by Act XVII. of 1835 a legal tender in the
Setlements of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca,
but no copper coin, exeept the half-pice issued under the Act XI.
of 1854,t is now by law legal tender for fractions of a rupee
in that Settlement; and it is expedient to remedy this defect in
the law ; and Avhereas besides the rupee the dollar is by custom
current in the said Settlement ; and it is expedient to provide
that the copper currency which will be legal tender in the said
Settlement for fractions of a rupee shall also be legal tender in
the said Settlement for fractions of a dollar ;
"—it was enacted
that from 1st July 1855,
—
A pie should be a legal tender in the Straits for 423
A Half-pice „ „ „ - Jm
A. a ice ,, „ ,,
-
jj5 A Double Pice „ „ „ - J
g Commenting on this Act in 1803, Sir Hercules Robinson
reported to the Imperial Government, as follows : "In 1854, I
believe, the Government of India adopted measures for forcing
the rupee into general circulation in the Straits Settlements, and
for making it the only legal tender in all transactions. With
this view the copper currency, consisting of cents of a dollar,
half-cents, and quarter-cents, previously supplied under the provisions
of the Act of 1847, was withheld, and the Indian copper
money, which cannot conveniently be adapted to a dollar currency,
was substituted in its place. But great inconvenience
having been experienced, and public demonstrations against the
change having taken place, the authorities at home were appealed to, and the project was countermanded."*
: They were struck at the Calcutta Mint, and were stated in 1863 to have
" a wide circulation beyond the Settlements in many parts of the Malayan
Peninsula and Indian Archipelago, being preferred by the natives to the
Dutch doit, which is nearly the only other small money known to them."
j- When this new coin was authorised by the above Act, it was made "a
legal tender in any part of the territories of the Government of the East
India Company."
After pointing out
that the new Indian Currency Act, No. 13 of 1862, made the
Indian coins legal tender in the Straits, as in all other Indian
territories, whereas no measure had ever been passed giving legal
currency to the real and sole measure of value in the colony, Sir
Hercules Robinson exposed the absurdities of the existing regulations
in the following words :
" All accounts throughout the Straits Settlements, except
those of the Government, are kept in dollars and cents, but the
public accounts are kept in the denomination of rupees, annas,
and pie, causing thereby much neediest labour and confusion in
the financial departments. With the exception of the receipts
from stamps, which it is optional with the public to pay for either
in rupees or dollars, the whole of the public revenue is required
to be paid in dollars, but it is brought to account in rupees at a
par of Rs. 224 8a. 6T4 ° p. for every $100 received at Singapore
and Malacca, and at a par of 220 rupees at Penang. All payments
from the local treasuries are made in dollars, but disbursements
to the public are charged in the public accounts in rupees
at a par of Rs. 224 8a. 6 4 gp. in Singapore and Malacca, at a par
of 220 rupees at Penang ; whilst the salaries of all public servants,
civil as well as military, which are fixed in rujiees, are paid at
all the Settlements in dollars at a par of 220 rupees. Thus the
sum of 100 dollars is received at the Singapore Treasury, is
brought to account of revenue as Rs. 224 8a. 6 40
5p., and is paid
away to an official for 220 rupees, the account being balanced by
an entry of " loss by exchange," Rs. 4. 8a. 6T4 o
D p. The confusion
is still greater as regards the transactions under the Indian
Stamp Act, for the values of the stamps being expressed in
rupees and annas, a Government Regulation had to be issued
under the authority of a special Act of the Indian Legislature,
No. 28 of 1863, declaring that dollars would be received at the
local treasuries in payment for stamps at the rate of $100 for
Rs. 227 4a. 4 ]
4
T p., equivalent to 2| cents per anna. Thus stamps
representing Rs. 227 4a. 41
4
Tp. are sold at the stamp office for
$100, which $100 is brought to account in the treasury books as
a receipt Rs. 224 8a. 6A°ff p., and is paid away to a public official
for 220 rupees. Again, another arrangement is in force as
regards postage labels, upon which the values are also inscribed
in annas, whilst the labels are sold to the public for dollars, as
has been before observed, at the rate of Rs. 224 8a. 6T
4 °
a p. for
$100. But these labels are accepted in payment of British
postage at the rate of one anna for three halfpence, which at a
par of 4 s. 2 d. to the dollar is equivalent to a par of Rs. 208 5a. 4p.
for $100 ; that is, the postage labels are sold by the Government
at a low valuation, and are accepted back in payment of postage
at a high one ; or, in other terms, labels representing
Rs. 224 8a. 6 jVop. are sold to the public for $100, whilst labels
representing only Rs. 208 5a. 4p. are accepted from the public in payment of ^100 of British postage ;
* See Parly. Paper of 1866, " Correspondence respecting the transfer of the
control of the Strait9 Settlements from the India Office to the Colonial
Department."
and the difference of
Re. 16. 3a. l T 6
°oP'> equivalent to upwards of 7 per cent., is lost to
the local Government."
" In short, the whole system under which coins not in circulation
are declared by law a legal tender, and the public accounts are
required to be kept in the denomination of one currency, whilst
the real monetary transactions of both the Government and the
public are conducted in another, is unsound, and productive of
nothing but needless labour and confusion."
For some years the merchants of Singapore had advocated the
coinage of a British dollar. The opening of the new Mint at
Hong Kong in 1866 met this demand, and all that was now
needed was to make dollars the legal, as they had always been
the actual, standard of value in the Straits. This salutary change
Avas effected as part of the transfer of the Colony from the
Indian to the Imperial Government under the Act 29 & 30 Vict,
cap. 115, which was brought into operation as from the 1st of
April 1867 by Order in Council of 28th December 1866. No
time was lost by the new local Legislature in reforming the currency
system. Under date 1st April 1867, " The Legal Tender
Act of 1867 "* was passed, repealing all laws for making Indian
coins legal tender, and declaring that from 1st April " the dollar
issued from Her Majesty's Mint at Hong Kong, the silver dollar
of Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, and any other silver dollar,
to be specified from time to time by the Governor in Coitncil,
shall be the only legal tender in payment, or on account of any
engagement whatever, except as is hereinafter mentioned (i.e.,
as to subsidiary silver coins) within this Colony and its Dependencies
; provided that no dollar shall be a legal tender unless it
be of the same fineness and intrinsic value as the Hong1 Kong
dollar, and be not less than 415 grains troy weight, and be not
injured or defaced." The Act goes on to place limits of tender
of $2 and $} respectively, on silver coins (to be coined by a
British Mint, and (ii) on " such copper or bronze coins as may
now be current in this Colony and its Dependencies under Act
No. 6 of 1847 of the Indian Legislature, as well as such copper
or bronze coins as may be issued from Her Majesty's Mint, or
any branch thereof, representing the cent or one-hundredth part,
the half-cent or two-hundredth part, and the quarter-cent or fourhundredth
part of the dollar, f So long as the Hong Kong Mint was working, no question
could arise as to the supply of suitable subsidiary coins in silver
and copper, provision for the currency of which had been made in the Act of 1887.
" The Imperial Government had proposed to proceed bv Imperial Order in
Council, &c. under the Imperial Act. Indeed, an Order and Proclamation, practically
identical with the local Act, was passed on 17th May 1807, but, being
forestalled by the local measure, was never promulgated.
t The standard of value having now been satisfactorily fixed, the Colonial
Legislature proceeded, by Act No. 5 of 18G7, to provide for the conversion of
rupees in all payments by or to the Government, and for the keeping of the
public accounts in dollars, &c. The rate at which the conversion of the old
into the new currency was to be effected was 220 rupees per$100.
But, as the Hong Kong Mint was closed in
1868, only two years after its opening, and as the tokens struck
at that Mint were speedily absorbed, it became necessary for
the Straits to provide their own subsidiary coinage. This the
Colony proceeded to do in 1871, under the provisions of the
local Act of 1867 ; the highest denomination for the first fifteen
years being the 20-ceut. piece. On the model of Hong Kong,
the silver tokens of the Straits were of 800 millesimal fineness.
In 1886, a token half-dollar was added, of the same standard.
The details of the coins struck for the Straits from 1871 to 1891,
inclusive, will be found in the 22nd Annual Report of the
Deputy Master of the Mint, the total being given as •2,684,850
dollars. If the population of the Straits Settlements on 31st
December 1891 be taken in round numbers at 513,000, the above
total coinage of silver and copper tokens for the Colony is
equivalent to 5*23 dollars per head ; but this figure represents
a maximum, rather than an actual circulation. For, a considerable
number of Straits tokens are carried off (though not, to the
extent prevailing in the case of Hong Kong) for circulation in
neighbouring countries.
To revert to the standard coin, it is to be noted that, by Order
of the Governor in Council of 10th January 1874 (under the
Ordinance of 1867), the American trade dollar and the Japanese
yen (which was coined on the model of the Hong Kong dollar,
with the Hong Kong machinery) were admitted to unlimited
legal tender, equally with the Mexican dollar.
For some years before 1890 the Colony was flooded with the
copper coins of the North Borneo Company. As the law on the
subject was not deemed sufficiently stringent to deal with the
evil, it was decided in 1890 to consolidate and amend the currency
legislation of the Colony. This was done by the Order in Council
of 21st October 1890, which came into force on 1st January 1891,
the text of which will be found in the 21st Annual Report of
the Deputy Master of the Mint. In essentials, it left the local
system of currency unaltered.
In concluding this survey of the history of metallic money in
the Colony, it remains to be added that, as compared with Hong
Kong, the Straits Settlements are less influenced bv the vagaries
of the Chinese. " Chopping " is not in vogue here, and the
weight and fineness of each coin tendered is not so suspiciously
scrutinised as in Hong Kong. In fact, currency is practically
by tale in the Straits, as in Europe. It will be noticed that the
dislike of s* chopped " dollars in the Straits dates back to at least
before 1825 {see page 382, supra) ; at the present day " chopped "
dollars are never seen in the Straits Settlements.
Bank Notes.
At no time has there been a Government issue in the Straits
Settlements. The notes in circulation are those of the three
banks which monopolise the note-circulation in Hong Kong, and
are issued Tinder like conditions.
IN THE
BRITISH COLONIES. Straits Settlements.*
Of the three Settlements which unite to form this Colony, Singapore is the chief at the present day. It was also the chief in the loth century according to Joao de Barros, who, writing in 1553,** expressly states—in words which aptly depict the present condition of Singapore—that " before the foundation of Malacca, at this same Singapura . . . flocked together all the navigators of the seas of India from West to East." f
With the beginning of the 16th century Malacca, in the hands of the Portuguese, rose to be the great entrepot for European trade in the far East, a position which half a century later was partly shared by the Philippines. And it is of interest to note that, speaking of " Melequa" in 1498, the " Roteiro da Viagem da Vasco da Gama " records that the native money was composed of the staple commodity of the Straits, namely, tin. J With the arrival of the Portuguese, however, and with the discovery of the Philippines by the Spaniards, § silver coin—and more particularly the dominant Spanish dollar—established a supremacy in the Straits which, as the trade has moved eastwards, has been retained and strengthened by the Mexican dollar, the lineal descendant of the old Spanish dollar. It is a far cry from the beginnings of Portuguese colonisation at Malacca to the rise of British rule in what are now the Straits Settlements. In the interval Malacca, like many other Portuguese Colonies, had passed from Portuguese into Dutch hands ; and its trade was already on the wane. The first British possession was not Malacca, but Pulau-Pinang, which was re-christened Prince of Wales Island by the East India Company, on its cession in 1786.
* I am indebted to Mr. W. Maxwell, Colonial Secretary, for valuable information
respecting the currency of this Colony.
** Decadas da Asia.
| Curious to a modern reader is the statement ofA. Hamilton in his " New
Account of the East Indies " (1727) :—" In Anno 1703 I called at Johore on
my way to China, and he treated me very kindly and made me a present of
the Island of Sincapure ; hut I told him it could be of no use to a private
person, though a proper place for a company to settle a colony in, lyin°- in
the centre of trade, and being accommodated with good rivers (! !) and safe
liarbours, so conveniently situated that all winds served shipping, both to ^o
out and come in."
I " Tin of which they make money ; but the money is of large size and little
value, so that it takes three farzalas of it to make a crusado." Tin coins are
still in use in Malay States of the East Coast of the Peninsula (Pahang, &c).
The tin and lead coins of Achin are described in '* Recherches sur les
Monnaies des Indigenes de l'Archipel Indien et de la Peninsule Malai" " bv
Millies (La Have, 1871).
§ See under Hong Kong, page 371.
For this settlement, which soon tended further to oust Malacca as a commercial entrepot, the Company in 1787 and 1788 struck a silver coinage consisting of rupees, with half and quarter rupees, and copper cents, halfcents and quarter cents, a further issue of which was fruitlessly recommended by Lieut.-Governor Farquhar in 1805.* There were also " pice," here usually of tin. For, on 22nd March 1809 a Government advertisement states that, " Whereas large quantities of spurious pice are now in circulation in this Settlement, and Government having ordered a new coinage of pice to the amount of 4,000 dollars ; which with those that have been before been coined at different times, by order of Government, will be sufficient for the purpose of general circulation ; notice is hereby given that on and after the first of next month no pice will be received into the treasury of this island, except such as have been coined by the orders of Government, as before mentioned, so that 100 of which (sic) pice shall not weigh less than 4f catties of pure tin." Though the Company had established the rupee as the standard coin in Penang, the trade relations of the settlement constrained the mercantile community to adopt as their standard, not the Indian coin, but the universal Spanish dollar, the coin familiar
to the conservative races with whom they had commerce. Therefore, from the earliest days of Penang, the dollar, not the rupee, was the recognised standard of value. Writing of this island, Kelly says, in his " Universal Cambist " of 1825 :
—
" Accounts are kept in Spanish dollars, copangs,f and pice, 10 pice making a copang, and 10 copangs one Spanish dollar. The current pice are coined in the island ; they are pieces of tin, 16 of which weigh the catty, or 1^ lb. English. On the exchange of dollars into pice there is a loss of 2 per cent. ; on dollars without
the King's head,! 10 per cent. ; and from 5 to 10 per cent, on all dollars defaced (i.e. ' chopped. '") §
The old " Carolus," or " Pillar Dollar,"|| of Spain is to this day the standard coin in certain of the neighbouring Malay and Siamese- Malay States. In Achin and in the States of Raman, Lege, Patani, and (to a less extent) Kelantan, none but pillar dollars are accepted by the natives.
o Journal of the Indian Archipelago, v. 418. In 1810 the Royal Mint
coined 25 tons of copper for Penang into pieces weighing respectively, 160
grains and 80 grains, and therefore comparable with the cent and half-cent
of 1847. In 1813-14 there was a tin coinage issut-d in Java hy the British
Government. See Netscher Moneten van Nied. Indie ( Batavia, 18(53).
f This word is still used in the island of Penang to signify 10 cents of a
dollar, though it is unknown in the neighbouring Settlements of Singapore
and Malacca. The Memorandum of 180.5 by Lieutenant-Governor Farquhar
(Journ. Ind. Arch., v. 418) speaks of u doublekies or cupangs," the
" doubleky " being the Dutch coin of 2 stuvvers, or 10 duits.
% Le., " Republican" dollars struck in Mexico, &c, after 1810. Compare
the earlier preference of the Chinese for the old Spanish coins at Hong Kong.
§ Atkins mentions copper '• cents, half-cents, and 2-cents" as having been
coined for Prince of Wales Island in 1825 to 18 18, presumably on the model
of the coinage of 1810.
I The Malays, like the Arabs of North Africa (see page 301), call these
coins " cannon dollars," mistaking the Pillars of Hercules for the recognised
pioneers of European civilisation.
As to Malacca, which after being restored to the Dutch in 1818 had been finally taken over by the East India Company in 1825, Kelly states that " accounts are kept in rix-dollars of 8 schillings of 48 slivers ; the stiver is subdivided into 4 duits.*
The rix-dollar is an imaginary money in which all contracts for goods are made ; but the principal current coins are rupees,f Dutch schillings, Dubbeltjes, 2-stiver pieces, and doits. The Spanish dollar is from 25 to 40 per cent, better than the rixdollar of account; hence at a medium the rix-dollar is worth 3s. 4c?. sterling. A Dutch ducatoon passes for 13 schillings; an English crown for 10 schillings; a Bombay or Surat rupee for 5 schillings ; a Madras or Arcot rupee for 4 schillings, more or less. A stamped Japan copang J passes for 10 rix-dollars. It was in 1826 that, Singapore having been ceded finally in 1824, the three settlements of Malacca, Penang, and Singapore were united under one government with its seat at Penang. Not until 1837 did Singapore supplant Penang. The currency of the Straits Settlements is thus described in Low's " Dissertation on Penang, &c," in 1836 :—" The dollar is the favourite coin in the Straits. It exchanges in the bazaars for a number varying from 100 up to 120 pice. At present it is pretty steady at 106. Indian rupees are also in circulation, but gold coins are hardiy ever seen. There are also half dollars, and the divisions of the Sicca rupee. A Sicca rupee exchanges in the bazaar for 50 pice on an average." And, similarly, Newbold,
in his " Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca" (London, 1839), after mentioning that the Spanish dollar was the merchants' standard, and that Indian coins were in circulation, goes on to say that " guilders and half-guilders, and other Dutch coins are disappearing " (he is probably referring here to Malacca in particular). " The most current copper coins are the cent, the half and quarter cent, the doit, the wang, the wang bhara, § and Indian pice." In 1835 the Company revised its currency legislation for the
whole of its territories, which included the Straits Settlements, and made no exception in favour of the dollar-using colony when enforcing the establishment of the rupee as the standard coin, with pice in subsidiary circulation.
° 5 doits went to the stu^ver of Holland, as against 4 to the stuyver of
Dutch India.
f In Dutch India the guilder or florin was, and is to this day, spoken of as
a "rupee ;" so that Kelly's statement need not refer to Indian coins, though
the position of the word " Dutch " after " rupees " points this way.
X This gold coin of Japan is not to be confused with the copper coins of 1 and
2 capangs coined for Malacca in 1835 by the East India Company. Marsden's
Malay Dictionary of 1812, says " keping '' is "a copper cuin, 400 of which
are equal to a Spanish doilar."
§ '• These are Malay words. The wang was the Netherlands Indian stijver = 4 duits, and the wang bhara was the European stijver, = 5 duits. Twentytwo
years ago, when I was magistrate of Malacca, I often heard the expression
wang bhara used to signify 2\ cents of a dollar, though there was no corresponding
coin. This is similar to the use of the word Kapang in Penang,"
(Note communicated by Mr. W. Maxwell),
The first concession which
the Company made to the requirements of Straits currency was
in 1847, when by Act No VI. of that year it was provided that
the Indian Regulations " shall not be deemed to apply to copper
currency of the Settlements of Penang, Singapore, and Malacca.
From and after 1st January 1848 the following copper coins onlv
shall be received at or issued from any Government Treasury
within the said Settlements (i) acent, weighing 144 grains troy; (ii)
a half-cent, weighing 72 grains ; and (iii) a quarter-cent, weighing
36 grains." These copper coins* were to be legal tender only
for fractions of a dollar, and " the circulation in the said Settlements
after the said day of all copper coins or tokens, not being
the authorised le^al coinage of any British or foreign Government,
is prohibited," under penalty of not more than Us. 10.
But. this concession was withdrawn in 1855. The preamble of
Act No. XVII. of that year reads as follows : " Whereas the
Company's rupee is by Act XVII. of 1835 a legal tender in the
Setlements of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca,
but no copper coin, exeept the half-pice issued under the Act XI.
of 1854,t is now by law legal tender for fractions of a rupee
in that Settlement; and it is expedient to remedy this defect in
the law ; and Avhereas besides the rupee the dollar is by custom
current in the said Settlement ; and it is expedient to provide
that the copper currency which will be legal tender in the said
Settlement for fractions of a rupee shall also be legal tender in
the said Settlement for fractions of a dollar ;
"—it was enacted
that from 1st July 1855,
—
A pie should be a legal tender in the Straits for 423
A Half-pice „ „ „ - Jm
A. a ice ,, „ ,,
-
jj5 A Double Pice „ „ „ - J
g Commenting on this Act in 1803, Sir Hercules Robinson
reported to the Imperial Government, as follows : "In 1854, I
believe, the Government of India adopted measures for forcing
the rupee into general circulation in the Straits Settlements, and
for making it the only legal tender in all transactions. With
this view the copper currency, consisting of cents of a dollar,
half-cents, and quarter-cents, previously supplied under the provisions
of the Act of 1847, was withheld, and the Indian copper
money, which cannot conveniently be adapted to a dollar currency,
was substituted in its place. But great inconvenience
having been experienced, and public demonstrations against the
change having taken place, the authorities at home were appealed to, and the project was countermanded."*
: They were struck at the Calcutta Mint, and were stated in 1863 to have
" a wide circulation beyond the Settlements in many parts of the Malayan
Peninsula and Indian Archipelago, being preferred by the natives to the
Dutch doit, which is nearly the only other small money known to them."
j- When this new coin was authorised by the above Act, it was made "a
legal tender in any part of the territories of the Government of the East
India Company."
After pointing out
that the new Indian Currency Act, No. 13 of 1862, made the
Indian coins legal tender in the Straits, as in all other Indian
territories, whereas no measure had ever been passed giving legal
currency to the real and sole measure of value in the colony, Sir
Hercules Robinson exposed the absurdities of the existing regulations
in the following words :
" All accounts throughout the Straits Settlements, except
those of the Government, are kept in dollars and cents, but the
public accounts are kept in the denomination of rupees, annas,
and pie, causing thereby much neediest labour and confusion in
the financial departments. With the exception of the receipts
from stamps, which it is optional with the public to pay for either
in rupees or dollars, the whole of the public revenue is required
to be paid in dollars, but it is brought to account in rupees at a
par of Rs. 224 8a. 6T4 ° p. for every $100 received at Singapore
and Malacca, and at a par of 220 rupees at Penang. All payments
from the local treasuries are made in dollars, but disbursements
to the public are charged in the public accounts in rupees
at a par of Rs. 224 8a. 6 4 gp. in Singapore and Malacca, at a par
of 220 rupees at Penang ; whilst the salaries of all public servants,
civil as well as military, which are fixed in rujiees, are paid at
all the Settlements in dollars at a par of 220 rupees. Thus the
sum of 100 dollars is received at the Singapore Treasury, is
brought to account of revenue as Rs. 224 8a. 6 40
5p., and is paid
away to an official for 220 rupees, the account being balanced by
an entry of " loss by exchange," Rs. 4. 8a. 6T4 o
D p. The confusion
is still greater as regards the transactions under the Indian
Stamp Act, for the values of the stamps being expressed in
rupees and annas, a Government Regulation had to be issued
under the authority of a special Act of the Indian Legislature,
No. 28 of 1863, declaring that dollars would be received at the
local treasuries in payment for stamps at the rate of $100 for
Rs. 227 4a. 4 ]
4
T p., equivalent to 2| cents per anna. Thus stamps
representing Rs. 227 4a. 41
4
Tp. are sold at the stamp office for
$100, which $100 is brought to account in the treasury books as
a receipt Rs. 224 8a. 6A°ff p., and is paid away to a public official
for 220 rupees. Again, another arrangement is in force as
regards postage labels, upon which the values are also inscribed
in annas, whilst the labels are sold to the public for dollars, as
has been before observed, at the rate of Rs. 224 8a. 6T
4 °
a p. for
$100. But these labels are accepted in payment of British
postage at the rate of one anna for three halfpence, which at a
par of 4 s. 2 d. to the dollar is equivalent to a par of Rs. 208 5a. 4p.
for $100 ; that is, the postage labels are sold by the Government
at a low valuation, and are accepted back in payment of postage
at a high one ; or, in other terms, labels representing
Rs. 224 8a. 6 jVop. are sold to the public for $100, whilst labels
representing only Rs. 208 5a. 4p. are accepted from the public in payment of ^100 of British postage ;
* See Parly. Paper of 1866, " Correspondence respecting the transfer of the
control of the Strait9 Settlements from the India Office to the Colonial
Department."
and the difference of
Re. 16. 3a. l T 6
°oP'> equivalent to upwards of 7 per cent., is lost to
the local Government."
" In short, the whole system under which coins not in circulation
are declared by law a legal tender, and the public accounts are
required to be kept in the denomination of one currency, whilst
the real monetary transactions of both the Government and the
public are conducted in another, is unsound, and productive of
nothing but needless labour and confusion."
For some years the merchants of Singapore had advocated the
coinage of a British dollar. The opening of the new Mint at
Hong Kong in 1866 met this demand, and all that was now
needed was to make dollars the legal, as they had always been
the actual, standard of value in the Straits. This salutary change
Avas effected as part of the transfer of the Colony from the
Indian to the Imperial Government under the Act 29 & 30 Vict,
cap. 115, which was brought into operation as from the 1st of
April 1867 by Order in Council of 28th December 1866. No
time was lost by the new local Legislature in reforming the currency
system. Under date 1st April 1867, " The Legal Tender
Act of 1867 "* was passed, repealing all laws for making Indian
coins legal tender, and declaring that from 1st April " the dollar
issued from Her Majesty's Mint at Hong Kong, the silver dollar
of Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, and any other silver dollar,
to be specified from time to time by the Governor in Coitncil,
shall be the only legal tender in payment, or on account of any
engagement whatever, except as is hereinafter mentioned (i.e.,
as to subsidiary silver coins) within this Colony and its Dependencies
; provided that no dollar shall be a legal tender unless it
be of the same fineness and intrinsic value as the Hong1 Kong
dollar, and be not less than 415 grains troy weight, and be not
injured or defaced." The Act goes on to place limits of tender
of $2 and $} respectively, on silver coins (to be coined by a
British Mint, and (ii) on " such copper or bronze coins as may
now be current in this Colony and its Dependencies under Act
No. 6 of 1847 of the Indian Legislature, as well as such copper
or bronze coins as may be issued from Her Majesty's Mint, or
any branch thereof, representing the cent or one-hundredth part,
the half-cent or two-hundredth part, and the quarter-cent or fourhundredth
part of the dollar, f So long as the Hong Kong Mint was working, no question
could arise as to the supply of suitable subsidiary coins in silver
and copper, provision for the currency of which had been made in the Act of 1887.
" The Imperial Government had proposed to proceed bv Imperial Order in
Council, &c. under the Imperial Act. Indeed, an Order and Proclamation, practically
identical with the local Act, was passed on 17th May 1807, but, being
forestalled by the local measure, was never promulgated.
t The standard of value having now been satisfactorily fixed, the Colonial
Legislature proceeded, by Act No. 5 of 18G7, to provide for the conversion of
rupees in all payments by or to the Government, and for the keeping of the
public accounts in dollars, &c. The rate at which the conversion of the old
into the new currency was to be effected was 220 rupees per$100.
But, as the Hong Kong Mint was closed in
1868, only two years after its opening, and as the tokens struck
at that Mint were speedily absorbed, it became necessary for
the Straits to provide their own subsidiary coinage. This the
Colony proceeded to do in 1871, under the provisions of the
local Act of 1867 ; the highest denomination for the first fifteen
years being the 20-ceut. piece. On the model of Hong Kong,
the silver tokens of the Straits were of 800 millesimal fineness.
In 1886, a token half-dollar was added, of the same standard.
The details of the coins struck for the Straits from 1871 to 1891,
inclusive, will be found in the 22nd Annual Report of the
Deputy Master of the Mint, the total being given as •2,684,850
dollars. If the population of the Straits Settlements on 31st
December 1891 be taken in round numbers at 513,000, the above
total coinage of silver and copper tokens for the Colony is
equivalent to 5*23 dollars per head ; but this figure represents
a maximum, rather than an actual circulation. For, a considerable
number of Straits tokens are carried off (though not, to the
extent prevailing in the case of Hong Kong) for circulation in
neighbouring countries.
To revert to the standard coin, it is to be noted that, by Order
of the Governor in Council of 10th January 1874 (under the
Ordinance of 1867), the American trade dollar and the Japanese
yen (which was coined on the model of the Hong Kong dollar,
with the Hong Kong machinery) were admitted to unlimited
legal tender, equally with the Mexican dollar.
For some years before 1890 the Colony was flooded with the
copper coins of the North Borneo Company. As the law on the
subject was not deemed sufficiently stringent to deal with the
evil, it was decided in 1890 to consolidate and amend the currency
legislation of the Colony. This was done by the Order in Council
of 21st October 1890, which came into force on 1st January 1891,
the text of which will be found in the 21st Annual Report of
the Deputy Master of the Mint. In essentials, it left the local
system of currency unaltered.
In concluding this survey of the history of metallic money in
the Colony, it remains to be added that, as compared with Hong
Kong, the Straits Settlements are less influenced bv the vagaries
of the Chinese. " Chopping " is not in vogue here, and the
weight and fineness of each coin tendered is not so suspiciously
scrutinised as in Hong Kong. In fact, currency is practically
by tale in the Straits, as in Europe. It will be noticed that the
dislike of s* chopped " dollars in the Straits dates back to at least
before 1825 {see page 382, supra) ; at the present day " chopped "
dollars are never seen in the Straits Settlements.
Bank Notes.
At no time has there been a Government issue in the Straits
Settlements. The notes in circulation are those of the three
banks which monopolise the note-circulation in Hong Kong, and
are issued Tinder like conditions.