Madras (Chīnāpatan/ Arkot) Mint
Coins were issued from the
Europeans |
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See
Nelson Wright; also Extracts from the IOR
The
EIC obtained the right to strike coins at
The first
mint at
A
new mint is mentioned in the records in 1695 situated in the outer fort or
white town [4]
and in 1711 the minting of gold and silver was separated into two mints. In
1725-27 the silver mint was rebuilt. Thurston [5],
records a contemporary account of the operation of the mint, dated 16th August
1742:
‘It is a great concern to me to observe
by an extract from the General Letter from England, that the Honorable Company
should have the least value of reason to suspect that I have been anyway
negligent in my duty towards them; for I do assure your Honors, that I have at
all times used my utmost care and diligence, as much as in me lay, to keep the
minters to their weight and standard in all the moneys that have been coined
since my time; and that I never discovered any attempt to adulterate the coin,
but in the affair of Rangum with which I
took care to acquaint this Honorable Board.
The methods of coinage in the Tower of
London differ much from what is used here; it being impossible to adulterate
the gold and silver there after the Assay Master has tried them, being cast
into bars, before the assays are taken. Those bars afterwards run through
flatting mills, the money cut out with an engine, milled and stamped, but no
more melted. The constant method here has been, first to melt the gold or
silver, and break it into small grains or powder; the muster is taken by the
Assay Master; after which (if the proper standard), the grains or powder is
distributed among a great number of coolies in several work-houses or godowns:
who weigh every rupee and pagoda separate, and afterwards deliver them to other
coolies to melt. Different persons receive them to flat, and others to stamp.
By which method of working, your Honors must be very sensible, that, if it was
not for some confidence which must be put in the undertakers, and the fear of
punishment in such as should be detected, my utmost care and vigilance could
not prevent from adulterations. The only check upon them, and what I frequently
make use of after the first trial, is to take muster of their moneys in their
presence, to assay after it is finished, to let them see I have a watchful eye
over them.
What I have already said, with the
present flourishing state of the mint, will I humbly hope induce my Honorable
Masters to believe that I have not been any way negligent in my duty hitherto,
and shall take my utmost care that they have no cause of complaint in the
future.
I am,
Honorable Sir and Sirs,
Your most obedient and humble Servant,
Sidney Foxall’
The French
destroyed large parts of the mint when they occupied Madras in 1746-1749 and it
was not rebuilt until 1754, with another silver mint being added in 1792/3.
Roebuck
reviewed the activities of the mint in 1798 [6].
In
1807 machinery was introduced into a new mint, which continued to operate until
well after the introduction of the uniform coinage 1835 [7].
Map
from 1726
References
[2] Foster (1912) The English Factories in
Grant for
‘Also
that the said English Company shall perpetually Injoy the priviledges of
mintage, without paying any Dewes or dutyes whatsoever, more than the ordinary
wages or hire unto those that shall Quoyne the moneyes’.
[3] Pridmore
‘Concerning
coynage, we first take an essay of the gold and the weight before it goeth into
the Mint, and then appoynt some one of the Companies servants to sit by while
it is meltinge. Afterwards we weigh it again and make up the accompt of the
losse in meltinge and for every 128 oz the sheroffs alow 1161 pa(godas)….. The
standard of the Pagoda is 8 5/8 or 8¾ matt. Five per mille is allowed on the
customs for coynage (half to the Company and the other half to the Kinge) and 6
1/8 per mille for the laboorers, besides for charcoale, oile, etc. One fifth
part copper and four-fifths silver in the alloy’
[4] Pridmore
[5] Thurston E., (1890), History of the
coinage of the territories of the East India Company in the Indian Peninsula.
Government Press, Madras.
[6] Boards Collections. Letter from B.
Roebuck to Madras Government dated 26th June 1798. IOR F/4/46, No. 1084.
In consequence of the commands of the
Honble the Governor on Council by your letter of the 2nd instant, I
have personally examined the gold and silver mint and have now the honor to lay
before you for his information statements of the same together with list of the
servants employed at the mint.
Silver Mint
During the late war when a considerable
quantity of silver was required to be coined, it was found requisite to build a
new mint, as without that aid, in the apartments then used, no more than 3 lacs
of rupees could be coined monthly. When the new mint was built, and the
silversmiths collected together, in one month 10 lacs of rupees have been
coined, and there can be no difficulty of doing the same again, with the same
means. The new mint is now used for containing military stores, and in the
confined state of the present, there can only be coined about 3 lacs of rupees
monthly.
I must here observe that after the
coinage is completed, 6 weeks or two months are required to extract from all
the different vessels which have been used in the coinage, the silver which
adheres to them.
Gold Mint
In the present gold mint there are only
two apartments, which are not sufficient for the coinage, as there is no
separate place to wash and amalgamize the gold which has adhered to the vessels
used in making the pagodas, the whole of which are beat up, washed and
triturated with quicksilver; but if one set of apartments in Fort Square, which
are close to the mint, are given up, there will then be a place for conducting
this branch of the business separately, while the coinage is going forward; and
there will be no occasion for any stop to be put to the coining. In that case
two lac and forty thousand pagodas may be regularly coined monthly; but in the
present mint there is no place for conducting that operation without stopping
the other business, one lac and forty thousand a month is as much as can be
regularly coined.
The Mint Establishment of servants are
as follows
Assay Office
An Assay
Master @ 200 pagodas per annum
Malabar Monthly Servants
A Writer @ 4 Pagodas per month
A sheroff @ 4 ditto
A Surveyor @ 5 ditto
A
Surveyor’s Assistant @ 3 ditto
A Comiopoly @ 6 ditto
A Furnace Man when employed @ 12 fanams
per day
A Flatting Man ditto ditto
A Chop Cutter for making chops
For
1 lac of star pagodas 4 Pagodas
Madras
Pagodas 2 Pagodas
Rupees 5 Pagodas
240lbs
Madras Fanams ¼ Pagoda
1
Candy Madras Doodoos 3/8
Pagoda
There then follows a list of the fees of
the Assay Office.
There is also a contractor who has no
fixed salary. The contractor takes upon himself the whole expenses of the
coinage, such as artificers implements, fuel and attendants; with all wastage
of gold and silver and is accountable for all deficiencies, for which he receives
as follows
On Silver 17½ Rupees per 1000
On Gold 6½
Pagodas per 1000
Madras Fanams 2½ per cent
Madras Dubbs Pags 23,,5,,50 per candy
When he refines silver which is not of a
proper touch, he receives 3 ¼ per cent for such silver.
When gold is required to be refined, he
receives for refining 1 ¼ per cent, but there is very little gold brought to
this place, which requires refining. He also pays two thousand pagodas a year
to the Governor; and in a year when there is not much coinage, he scarcely receives
more than the public expense of the mint.
As a result of the report, repairs were
ordered to be carried out at both the silver and gold mints.
[7] Pridmore p4-6
Thurston E., (1890), History of the coinage of the territories of the
East India Company in the Indian Peninsula. Government Press, Madras.