Extracts
from
Start at E/4 for correspondence
between London & Bombay (Open Access Indexes)
Ramset Gumbaset
Luckmonsett Daramset
Ransor Lucmonset
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/996 (1753-1761) p. 237-239
Dispatch dated 11th February
1756
It was high time to have done with
your undertakers for the mint as from yours and Mr Spencer’s representations it
appears we might have been great sufferers not only by the great balance due
from them under the denomination of sweeps but by their debasement of the coin
which must in consequence have been a prejudice to our revenue and the trade of
the Island in general. We hope you have taken care to recover the
before-mentioned balance which we find amounted to upwards of Rs 100,000 and we expect you will carefully look after the
new undertakers in such a manner that the reputation of the mint may be kept up
entirely to our satisfaction as likewise to that of the proprietors of silver
on a private account.
We now transmit you for your information
our accountant’s remarks on the several musters of rupees received from you the
last season, every parcel of which you will observe falls considerably short of
the standard fineness. Whether any of them were coined by the new contractors
we are not informed. If they were they ought to be most strictly looked after
to prevent all future attempts for debasing the coinage.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/996 (1753-1761) p. 654-655
Dispatch dated 5th July
1758
The late mint undertakers were
dismissed in 1753 and the reasons you assigned were that the silver was debased
and large sums continued in the sweeps. Upon a retrospection
we do not see the present managers or rather manager, have done much better.
The silver by our several lower reports is still short of fineness, and as
large, or larger, sums of money continued in the sweeps. Yu joined we observe
one of the late managers as an unexceptionable person with those new
contractors, but centered the sole power with Ramsett. We do not see the equity or utility of this
measure, for surely a person bound to us in so large a trust, ought, for his
own sake and ours to have the power of aiding and controlling, nor can we
approve that so important a branch should at any time be under the sole
direction of one person were he less exceptionable than the present. We do
therefore direct that you do so far vary this contract as to fix Ransor Lucmonset in an equal
share in the management and advatages and, as his
family in conjunction with Pudumset’s, have held the
mint for near fifty years, it is but reasonable his name should stand first in
the contract. Should any demur arise on the part of Ramset Gumbazet
to so reasonable a regulation (which we do not apprehend) and he should decline
this business, you are in his stead to join with Ransor
Lucmonset one or two capable and unexceptionable
persons upon the like terms and conditions as the mint is now held and we are
under no apprehensions that you’ll be at any loss because this business is too
advantageous & creditable to want many competitors, and we expect you’ll
have a watchful eye upon the conduct of those who either undertake or continue
the management.
The sons of Savajee
Daramset merit our compassion. Their father did us
signal service in raising our several revenues, particularly those of tobacco
and arrack, and in many other respects a useful subject. We do not condemn your
dismissing them from the mint, we are satisfied you acted upon very just
motives and perhaps their youth and inexperience might have led them into
errors, but as their characters are unexceptionable and the distress of this
once opulent family call upon us for relief, if you can consistently restore
them, they giving sufficient security for their conduct as well as their trust
(which we are told they will be able to do)it will receive our approbation, and
we accordingly recommend the same to you for your consideration.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/996 (1753-1761) p. 902-903
Dispatch dated 25th April
1760
In 1758 we recommended to your notice
the families of Lucmonset and Savajee
Daramset who were dismissed from the mint in 1753 and
we did this from motives of humanity and good policy as their parents had been
very useful subjects. In answer to this we notice that you had readmitted Lucmonset but continue to exclude the sons of Savajee. The chief charge against Savajee
and Lucmonset in depriving them of the mint was their keeping large balances in their
hands, but as the admission of Ramset Gumbaset has
rather increased the evil and as Ramset bears a very different character and
can have no pretensions to our favour, we order that upon receipt of this
letter he be entirely removed and that the mint be given wholly to Lucmonset and Savajee’s sons,
each a moiety upon the terms and conditions it’s now held, Lucmonset
to be first named and as Vetuldas Kessewdass
has offered himself for their security, we deem it sufficient.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/997 (1761-1767) p. 1074
Dispatch dated 4th April
1767
The Nabob’s debasing the Surat rupees in their mint without consulting our servants
was a very wrong step and we are pleased to see you obliged him to alter them
to the former standard for, was he permitted to continue such measures, he
might very soon enrich himself but it must be highly destructive to our affairs
as well as to all the inhabitants of the place and to trade in general. In
future if naything of this kind ahould
happen he must be told that our orders are positive: that he should do no acts
that are prejudicial to trade or the interests of the subjects. In any case
whatever, this must appear so very reasonable to him considering our situation
in that place that we make no doubt of his compliance.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/998 (1768-1771) p. 99
Dispatch dated 25th March
1768
In our letter of last season we gave
some orders with regard to the management of the mint at Surat
to which we expect due attention should be paid as we esteem this very
essential for our interest and the trade of Bombay in particular.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/998 (1768-1771) p. 400-401
Dispatch dated 31st March
1769
Your giving the mint contract at the
Presidency to Bucon Surdass
who made the highest offer and after the present contractors had refused to
accept it on his terms, is, for the reasons given in the 76 and 77 paragraphs
of your letter of the 23rd December 1767, approved and we are
pleased to find the coinage duty has increased this year but we expect you will
keep a watchful eye on the contractor that he keeps up the credit of the mint
and gives sufficient security for all the bullion he is entrusted with.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/998 (1768-1771) p. 743
Dispatch dated 6th April
1770
As the sons of Savajee
and Lucmonsett declined contracting for the
management of the mint, and as better terms could not be procured than those
offered by Bhocandass Sordass,
who had been a sufferer by his former contract, we approve you continuing the
mint in his hands for the time stipulated, and the terms on which you have
settled the contract with him and Rama Sinay Lollecur who, as you inform us, is a man of substance and
security for performance of such contract.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/998 (1768-1771) p. 1059
Dispatch dated 25th April
1771
The resolution you have taken to make
the standard of Surat rupees the same as the standard
of those coined at Bombay appears to us a very propoer
measure and may tend to put a stop to the currency of Broach rupees, the
continuance of which will be highly prejudicial to the interest of the Company
as well as that of private merchants and we hope your next advices will inform
us that the state of your cash has enabled you to carry that measure into
execution.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/998 (1768-1771) p. 1169-1170
Dispatch dated 12th June
1771
The innovations you have made in the
coinage of Surat & the duty to be levied thereon
are of a nature too complicated to admit of our giving any precise orders
thereon. By the present dispatch we must however here observe that the [discouragem] which you appear to have thrown in the way of
our servants at Surat by the various regulations you
have directed them to pursue in the business of their mint, have too obvious a
tendency to the benefit of that of Bombay to give us any assurance that you
have been wholly guided therein by the general good of the Company. It is
therefore our pleasure that you no longer interfere in the coinage of Surat otherwise than by advice or such intimations as may
conduce to the mutual interests of both settlements, and we, in an especial
manner, direct that our President do in no wise attempt to regulate the
business of Surat mint as the interests he may have
in the effects of it reders it highly improper for
his having any part therein, & therefore we enjoin you to revert to the old
practice & leave our servants at Surat
responsible to you for their conduct in respect to the coinage at that
settlement.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/999 (1771-1778) p. 281-282
(in red ink)
Dispatch dated 1st April
1772
It is not without surprize we find
that after the prohibition of Broach rupees has so repeatedly been declared to
have taken its rise from their being of a quality so base and so much
adulterated that to receive them into the treasury at Surat
would occasion great loss to the Company, we should now be informed that they
prove by assay finer than Surat rupees. It is not
less astonishing that the quantity of Surat rupees
should have exceedingly diminished by export whilst they were inferior in
fineness to others imported under great disadvantages These
are circumstances not accounted for in your consultations. We hope the late
regulations proposed ans acquiesced in by the Nabob
will have the desired effect but under such difficulties as appear likely to
occur, we cannot altogether decide on the propriety of the measure until its
utility shall have been evidenced by effects.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/999 (1771-1778) p. 819-822
(in red ink)
Dispatch dated 12th April
1775
The detriment which Surat must have suffered by the business of the mint having
been impeded for so long a time and by the continued alarm respecting the
Broach coin, which formed the chief currency of the city, and also by the
peculiar hardship[s laid upon the Gulf traders thereby, is so evident as to
render it a matter of the greatest surprize how it could escape your
observation. Your conduct in this affair has been very contradictory for we
find that at the time you took it up, your professed intention was to settle
the standard of the Surat rupee (which you
represented as having been debased) at its proper original fineness but after
near four years spent in adjusting the point, it was at last so ordered that
the standard was further debased than that which you had complained of. The
charges for the coinage were likewise increased and the bullion of course
produced fewer rupees to its owner than before you interfered in the matter. If
no alteration has been made in consequence of our disapprobation of your
conduct, signified in our letter of 12th June 1771, it is now our
positive injunction that you immediately establish the former standard and
charges of the Surat mint which were customary in the
year 1767 before you interfered in the business, as we can view the alterations
made in no other light than as calculated for the advantage of private persons.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1000 (1778-1780)
Nothing significant found
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1001 (1780-1782), p. 895
Nothing Significant found
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1002 (1783-1785), p. 895
Dispatch dated 11th April
1785
…and whatever may arise in future from
the mint and [consignage?] is to be carried to the
Company… [ie instead of to
the Governor]
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1003 (1786)
Nothing of interest found
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1004 (1786-1786), p. 15
Dispatch dated 8th November
1786
We direct that there be transmitted to
us (in triplicate at the least) specimens of every species of silver and copper
coinage current upon the Malabar Coast with a concise history of each,
particularly specifying where coined by whom, the weight, fineness, real &
nominal value, what quantities are supposed to be coined annually and as far as
you may be able to ascertain, what quantities of each are supposed to be in
circulation with how far such quantities are proportioned to the general wants.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1004 (1786-1786), p. 277
Dispatch dated 31st July
1787
We transmit you by this dispatch a
small box containing some copper money which has been coined for the use of our
settlement of Fort Marlbo’. A description of their
weights and value as proportioned to a Dollar is also transmitted under No… in
the packet. Eighteen tons thereof will be transmitted them as a supply for 1786
and a further 30 tons is intended them for 1787.
As we are desirous of extending the
export of copper coin from this country, we renew our directions of the 30
November last, para 15, that you send us specimens of
every species of copper money current on the Coast adding thereto your opinion
how far it may be expedient to send you over a quantity and to what extent.
Particular care will be taken here in execution of them and we conceive it may
prove equally beneficial to us and useful to you to be furnished with regular
supplies. Drawings for the reverse sides of the coins, a description of their
proper weights calculated in avoirdupois grains, as also the number of each
sized piece that will be given in exchange for rupees or pagodas, describing of
what specie must accompany your information.
Of the specimens now sent, the small
size weighing 50 grains avoirdupois are rated to pass at 400 to the dollar, the
middle size of 100 grains at 200 ditto and the large size of 150 grains at 133
ditto, which will serve for your guidance in calculating the proportions the
coin shall bear to the rupee or pagoda, which we would have ascertained as near
as possible by the same ratio.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1005 (1788-1789)
Nothing of interest found
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1006 (1789-90), p. 187
Dispatch dated 21st April
1790
We have permitted Mr Francis Wm Pemberton to take with him to Bombay the value of
£10,000 in Dollars or Portugal gold coins. The silver to be
consigned to you and to be coined into rupees.
Mr James Morley has also permission to
take with him to your Presidency the value of £26,000 in Spanish Dollars on the
same terms and conditions.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1006 (1789-90), p. 265
Dispatch dated 21st April
1790
We have permitted Mr Goerge [Loribind] to remit to Mr
James Stevens at Bombay, Dollars to the amount of about £600 on the terms and
conditions mentioned in the 2nd paragraph of this letter.
Messrs Alburn
& Carstairs have likewise our permission to remit
to Bombay the amount of £4000 in New Mexico Dollars on the same terms.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1006 (1789-90), p. 288-289
Dispatch dated 21st April
1790
Having perused the proceedings
referred to in these paras, relative to the debased
coinage of the Surat mint, we very much approve your
endeavours to regulate the same, trusting that your next advices will acquaint
us with their having proved effectual.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1006 (1789-90), p. 393-394
Dispatch dated 21st April
1790
We can by no means think of
superseding the copper coinage current upon your coast by subjecting ourselves
to the heavy loss that would attend the calling in that at present in
circulation, as stated in these paragraphs, but as we have it much at heart to
effect an improvement of this article, & are of opinion it may be effected
gradually without any loss whatever, we propose by the ships of the next season
to consign you a few tons by way of a trial & shall also hereafter keep you
from time to time supplied therewith in about the same proportions that you
shall conceive the old coinage may annually diminish. You will therefore after
receipt of these advices desist from any further coinage of copper whatever
& keep us regularly informed of the progress and success of the present
undertaking.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1007 (1790-91), p. 516-517
Dispatch dated 4th May 1791
The information in this para that the Chief of Surat has
been successful in engaging the Nabob to restore the currency of the mint to
its established fineness is pleasing to us and we rely on your promised
endeavours for effectually checking any attempt to debase it in future.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1007 (1790-91), p. 549-551
Dispatch dated 3rd May 1791
In the advices of the last season the
Governor and Council were informed of the Court’s intention in regard to the
establishment of a new copper coinage for the use of Bombay and its subordinate
settlements. I have now the Court’s orders to desire you will communicate to
the Governor and Council that instead of accomplishing the measure in the
gradual manner therein pointed out, it has been resolved at once to abolish the
old circulation & replace it by new issues. In pursuance of this
determination, the Court gave directions for striking a quantity of copper to
the extent of 100 tons which is equal to what you represent to be at present in
use, & they were in hopes of being able to consign the whole by the last
ship of this season, but having experienced a disappointment in this
particular, not more than about 35 tons being yet executed, that quantity only
is now forwarded upon the Essex, & the remainder will follow by the first
ships of the succeeding season. In carrying this measure into effect, the Court
have adopted the inscriptional devices recommended by the Bombay Provisional
Mint Master but have made a material alteration in the proportions of the
weight, as one of the [guiding] principles that weighed with the Court in
adopting the measure was to give the public a coin not only surpassing the old
in elegance of workmanship, but also in intrinsic value, whereby they are
better secured from impositions in respect to its being counterfeited.
With the subsequent consignments, the
Governor and Council will receive the needful instructions respecting the
points to be attended to in calling in the old circulation & issuing the
new, & until these shall be received, the Court direct that the parcels now
sent may on their landing be housed and carefully secured ‘till the period of
their issue.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1008 (1791-93), p. 41
Dispatch dated 26th
December 1791
Enclosed you will receive copy of
several paragraphs respecting the copper coinage for the use of Bombay and its
subordinates and I am directed to acquaint you that they will form a part of
the next dispatch to your Presidency.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1008 (1791-93), p. 59
Dispatch dated 8th February
1792
By the ship Essex of the last season
we forwarded you 34 tons 15 cwt? 2lb Of copper coinage, part of the quantity of 100 tons intended
for the use of Bombay and its subordinates which we hope has come duly to hand.
The ships Rockingham and Sulivan now under dispatch
will convey the remaining quantity.
Agreeable to the intimation conveyed
in our secretary’s letter of the 3rd May last we now proceed to
communicate our instructions in respect to their disposition:
Table as in chapter on soho
As counterfeiting the circulating
specie is an evil found to exist in most countries where the coin passes at a
rate far exceeding its intrinsic value (all charges of workmanship included) we
have for the purpose of checking a fraud of this nature resolved that the large
pieces weighing 200 grains each shall be issued to exchange at the rate of 50
to a rupee. The second size weighing 150 grains at 662/3 to a
rupee. The third size weighing 100 grains each at 100 to a rupee. The smallest size weighing 50 grains at 200 to a rupee.
At these rates of currency the public
will receive for each rupee a quantity of pure copper equal in weight to 10,000
avoirdupois grains. By the coin now in circulation they receive only 7,314. The
difference in this respect alone is nearly 50 per cent in their favour which,
combined with the elegance of their appearance will we conceive not only secure
them an early circulation in the Company’s districts but be the means also of
their finding their way into the more interior parts of the country.
Upon the next of these advices, we
direct that you forthwith issue a proclamation at the Presidency and the
various subordinates signifying that all persons in possession of copper pice
of the Company’s former issues on or before the (naming such period as shall
allow reasonable time both for the Presidency and subordinates) bring them in
to the Company’s Treasury or such other place as may be convenient for the
purpose of receiving in lieu thereof an equivalent in the coinage now sent.
Notice must also be given that from and after such date the old pice will be
considered as no longer current. In the execution of this order you must be
attentive to being imposed upon in the receipt of any other pice than those
actually issued from the Company’s mint. We apprehend if there are any
counterfeits in circulation they may be easily distinguished from the true
ones. As the measures pursued by former Government on a similar occasion (vide
cons…) appear to be well calculated to secure our interests in this respect we
refer you thereto, and direct that they be adopted in the present instance with
any others that your experience and local knowledge may suggest necessary on
the occasion.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1009 (1793-94), p. 53
Dispatch dated 19th
February 1794
We approve the several measures you
have taken for issuing the copper coinage and have given the needful directions
for putting in hand the additional quantity you have indented for. Attention
will also be paid to your observation respecting the different sizes and you
will in all probability receive the whole quantity bu
some of the later ships of the season.
We shall also communicate to the
person employed in manufacture your remarks in respect to the difference in
outturn by weight and tale and desire that the like if possible may be avoided
in any future consignment.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1010 (1795-96)
Nothing of great interest
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1011 (1796)
Nothing of interest found
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1012 (1797), p. 213
Nothing of interest
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1013 (1798), p. 194
Dispatch dated 23rd May
1798
For Fort Marlborough – Copper Coin 15
tons
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1014 (1798-99), p. 895
Nothing of interest found
Dispatches
to Bombay. E/4/1015 (1799-1800), p. 736-738
Dispatch dated 28th August
1800
Altho’ we feel at all times a satisfaction
in being able to extend the reports of the commodities of this country,
particularly those in a manufactured state, yet the price of copper at this
juncture is most unprecedentedly high. We deem it proper to suspend the
execution of this indent for the present. When we furnished you with the first
supply of coin in 1791, copper was £88 per ton, which with workmanship and
charges brought the coin to about £134 per ton. The present price of raw copper
is £138, which would bring the coin to £184 per ton, exclusive of any charges
for freight, interest and insurance and […] risk. At this rate we should
experience a considerable loss by the circulation unless we were to reduce the
weight of the coin in proportion to the advance in copper. Should the price of
copper hereafter get down so as that we may be barely reimbursed our expenses,
we shall then advert to your indent, and comply therewith, as we are not by any
menas solicitous of advantage in an article so
essential to the convenience and happiness of the
lower order of the natives.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1018 (1802-1803), pp.307-308
Dispatch dated 4th February
1803
We approve of your having submitted to
the Governor General in Council Dr Scott’s narrative and other papers referred
to in these paragraphs relative to the coinage. The state of the coinage at our
several settlements is at present under our consideration.
Dispatches
to Bombay. IOR E/4/1021, pp.
212-300
Dispatch dated 2nd May 1806
This is the Directors letter to all
Presidencies stating their intention to move to a single currency for all their
Indian possessions.
E/4/1023
XXVIII pp. 258-259
E/4/1030
XXXV pp. 185-194
E/4/1045
L p. 51-54
L p. 271-272
E/4/1048
LIII pp. 60-61
E/4/1050
LV pp. 733-739
E/4/1051
LVI pp. 623-628
E/4/1053
LVIII pp. 1169-1170
pp. 1319-1321
E/4/1055
LX pp.248-268
p. 757
pp. 1349-1350
E/4/1061
LXVI pp. 126
139-142
187-197
Index of Court Minutes
1803/04 Copper supplied by Mr Boulton p287