This However Seldom Happens, As The Wife,
Children, And Slaves Of The Debtor Are All Liable In Payment.
When the
agreed time of payment arrives, if the debt is not cleared, the creditor
may seize the person of the debtor and carry him home to his house, and
if not immediately satisfied, he may take the wife, children, and slaves
of the debtor and sell them.
The current money through all Pegu is made
of _ganza_, which is a composition of copper and lead, and which every
one may stamp at his pleasure, as they pass by weight; yet are they
sometimes falsified by putting in too much lead, on which occasions no
one will receive them in payment. As there is no other money current,
you may purchase gold, silver, rubies, musk, and all other things with
this money. Gold and silver, like other commodities, vary in their
price, being sometimes cheaper and sometimes dearer. This _ganza_ money
is reckoned by _byzas_, each _byza_ being 100 _ganzas_, and is worth
about half a ducat of our money, more or less according as gold is cheap
or dear.
When any one goes to Pegu to buy jewels, he will do well to remain there
a whole year; for if he would return by the same ship, he can do very
little to purpose in so short a time. Those who come from San Thome
usually have their goods customed about Christmas, after which they must
sell their goods, giving credit for a month or two, and the ships depart
about the beginning of March. The merchants of San Thome generally take
payment for their goods in gold and silver, which are always plentiful
in Pegu. Eight or ten days before their departure they are satisfied for
their goods. They may indeed have rubies in payment, but they make no
account of them. Such as propose to winter in the country ought to
stipulate in selling their goods for payment in two or three months, and
that they are to be paid in so many _ganzas_, not in gold or silver, as
every thing is most advantageously bought and sold by means of this
_ganza_ money. It is needful to specify very precisely both the time of
payment, and in what weight of ganzas they are to be paid, as an
inexperienced person may be much imposed upon both in the weight and
fineness of the _ganza_ money; for the weight rises and falls greatly
from place to place, and he may be likewise deceived by false _ganzas_
or too much alloyed with lead. For this reason, when any one is to
receive payment he ought to have along with him a public weigher of
money, engaged a day or two before he commences that business, whom he
pays two _byzas_ a-month, for which he is bound to make good all your
money and to maintain it good, as he receives it and seals the bags with
his own seal, and when he has collected any considerable sum he causes
it to be delivered to the merchant to whom it belongs. This money is
very weighty, as forty _byzas_ make a porters burden. As in receiving,
so in paying money, a public weigher of money must be employed.
The merchandises exported from Pegu are gold, silver, rubies, sapphires,
spinels, great quantities of benzoin, long-pepper, lead, lac, rice,
wine, and some sugar. There might be large quantities of sugar made in
Pegu, as they have great abundance of sugar-canes, but they are given as
food to the elephants, and the people consume large quantities of them
in their diet. They likewise spend many of these sugar-canes[167] in
constructing houses and tents for their idols, which they call _varely_
and we name pagodas. There are many of these idol houses, both large and
small, which are ordinarily constructed in a pyramidical form, like
little hills, sugar-loaves or bells, some of them being as high as an
ordinary steeple. They are very large at the bottom, some being a
quarter of a mile in compass. The inside of these temples are all built
of bricks laid in clay mortar instead of lime, and filled up with earth,
without any form or comeliness from top to bottom; afterwards they are
covered with a frame of canes plastered all over with lime to preserve
them from the great rains which fall in this country. Also about these
_varely_ or idol-houses they consume a prodigious quantity of leaf gold,
as all their roofs are gilded over, and sometimes the entire structure
is covered from top to bottom; and as they require to be newly gilded
every ten years, a prodigious quantity of gold is wasted on this
vanity, which occasions gold to be vastly dearer in Pegu than it would
be otherwise.
[Footnote 167: This is certainly an error, and Cesar Frederick has
mistaken the bamboo cane used in such erections for the sugar-cane. - E.]
It may be proper to mention, that in buying jewels or precious stones in
Pegu, he who has no knowledge or experience is sure to get as good and
as cheap articles as the most experienced in the trade. There are four
men at Pegu called _tareghe_ or jewel-brokers, who have all the jewels
or rubies in their hands; and when any person wants to make a purchase
he goes to one of these brokers, and tells him that he wants to lay out
so much money on rubies; for these brokers have such prodigious
quantities always on hand, that they know not what to do with them, and
therefore sell them at a very low price. Then the broker carries the
merchant along with him to one of their shops, where he may have what
jewels he wants according to the sum of money he is disposed to lay out.
According to the custom of the city, when the merchant has bargained for
a quantity of jewels, whatever may be the amount of their value, he is
allowed to carry them home to his house, where he may consider them for
two or three days; and if he have not himself sufficient knowledge or
experience in such things, he may always find other merchants who are
experienced, with whom he may confer and take counsel, as he is at
liberty to shew them to any person be pleases; and if he find that he
has not laid out his money to advantage, he may return them back to the
person from whom he had them without loss or deduction.
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