Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. V SAVAGE MALAYS OF /OHO/? 237
managed was simply that of maintaining a high value
for anything that was sold to the Jakun, and a low one
for what was bought from them. When the Jakun
rice -harvest had been reaped, they were persuaded
that rice was everywhere so plentiful that its price
was very small, and that, on the other hand, the price
of cloth had advanced as much above as the price of
rice was depressed below that of the Singapore market.
The conclusion of all the inquiries made by Logan, and
of numerous instances of barter of which he was a wit-
ness, was that the Malays sold the goods which they
purchased in Singapore at advances of from 100 to 400
per cent, whilst they bought " taban," camphor,
dammar, and other produce of the forest at from 100
to 400 per cent below the prices which they received
in Singapore. Thus a voyage of two or three days
enabled the Malay to double or quintuple the value
ot goods transferred from Singapore to Johor and
from Johor to Singapore. As the trade was almost
entirely carried on by barter, the Malays had a double
profit on every transaction. Yet they were not
satisfied with having established this vulture -like
system of trade. They resorted, besides, to every
indirect means of enhancing their gains that was at all
consistent with the preservation of the trade. They
made, for instance, advances of goods, and as their
debtors were entirely unacquainted with writing and
accounts, they had little difficulty in exacting far more
than the stipulated return from those Jakun whose
memories were not very tenacious ;
for the return
was made in small quantities from time to time, as
the jungle produce happened to be collected. But
the most certain and constant mode of defrauding the
Jakun was in weighing the goods which were the