Page:History of the French in India.djvu/95

 DUMAS OBTAINS PERMISSION TO COIN MONEY. 73 it was not long before he established very intimate rela- chap. tions with the courteous, hospitable, and friendly people who had established themselves at Pondichery. With 1735. M. Dumas, in particular, he formed an intimate friend- ship. Dumas, anxious to turn this to the advantage of the settlement, pressed upon Dost Ali the advisability of procuring for him the permission to coin money — a per- mission which had been granted to the English, but, by them, after a short trial, neglected. The Nawwab for- warded the request, with his own strong recommenda- tions, to Delhi, and he succeeded, at the end of 1736, in procuring a firman, issued by Muhammad Shah, and addressed to the Nawwab of Arkat, authorising the coinage by the French of the current coin of the realm, in gold and silver, bearing, on one side the stamp of the Mughal, and on the other the name of the place at which the money was coined.* The advantages which the French derived from this permission were very great indeed. The reputation of the Indo-French money became in a short time so great that it was the cause of establishing a very profitable trade in bullion. But, in addition, the actual profits were large. The annual amount struck off did not fall short of five or six millions of rupees,t and the profits on the coining of this amount were considered equal to an income of 200,000 rupees annually ; — a very great consideration in a settlement, which, like that of Pon- dichery, was left almost to shift for itself by the Direc- tors in Europe.J an extract from the letter addressed standard. The gold _ coin was called on this occasion by Dost Ali to M. the "pa?oda," equal in value to about Dumas : " The reputation you have nine shillings. Three hundred and acquired of being a true and faithful twenty rupees were considered equal friend is known everywhere. In the to one hundred pagodas; hence an view, therefore, to gain your friend- Indo-French rupee was worth more ship, I grant you permission to coin than two shillings and ninepence, rupees at Pondichery of the coinage reckoning a rupee at two shillings, of Arkat, conformably to the Par- J As a reward for the success of wana which I send you." — Guyon. his negotiations in this matter, M. fThe French rupee was a little Dumas was made Knight of the broader than an English shilling, and Order of St. Michel, and received very much thicker. In point of tine- patent letters of nobility. — Guyon.
 * The following: is a translation of ness it was superior to the English