The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

320 NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.of money, not beinground like all othercurrent moneyin Christ ianitie, but is a small rod of silver of the greatnesseof the pen of a goose feather wherewith we use towrite and in length about one eighth part thereof, whichis so wrested that the two ends meet at the juste halfepart and in the head thereof there is a stamp Turkescoand these be the best current money in all the Indiesand six of the larines make a ducat." 17In view of the importance of the larin in the commerceof Western Indian and the Persian Gulf in the sixteenthand seventeenth centuries, itmay be of interest to givea few further quotations from contemporary travels asto its use there. Pedro Texeira in his account of Basora(al-Basra) at end of the seventeenth century, says:" Thesilver coins are first the larins, long money with bothends bent, worth sixty-five maravedis a-piece andsecondly round coins called xays of the shape and valueof our real sexillo. This is of a lower standard than theother which is very fine." 18 "Of Lar, he writes : Thereis also the city of Lar or Lara, as we Portuguese pronounceit, whence are called laris, a money of the finestsilver, very well drawn and current throughout theeast." 19 Captain Jourdain in his Journal (c. 1610-1619}tells us in his account of Dabul in Bijapur that "thefactour of the Portugualls there pays the Governor ofDabul two thousand larins per year for the monopoly of20selling wine."Van Linshoten, describing the money of Goa, says :17Hakluyt, Principal Voyages, vol. vi. p. 12.1904.)w Travels, Hakl. Soc., 1902, p. 30.19 Ibid., p. 241.(Hakl. Soc., Extra Ser.,20 Journal, Hakl. Soc., 1905, p. 198.