Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/377

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION, 30 i sold in the markets of ancient Rome at the rate of 3s. 5jd. per pound avoirdupois, * which, for con- venience of comparison, I shall give, on this and similar occasions, in Indian weights, making Spa* nish dollars 102— per picul. At what price this pepper was purchased in Malabar, from whence it must have come, cannot be stated, but, from the analogy of modern times, we may probably not err far by saying at 6~ Spanish dollars per picul. The advance then would be nearly 1 600 per cent. When the Greeks of Egypt facilitated and cheap- ened the carriage, by a skill and enterprise exceed- ing that of the Asiatic traders, and still more, when the cheaper and more abundant produce of the Indian islands found its way to Europe, it is probable that this price was greatly reduced. Munn states the price of pepper in India at ^iVo Spanish dollars per picul. When it had reach- ed Aleppo, it was enhanced by 860 per cent., or cost 59i^V '^P^^is^ dollars, and, in the English market, it cost 3 s. 6d. per lb. or 103 /,f,, Spanish dollars per picul, or 7^ per cent, on the price at Aleppo, and 1580 per cent, on the first cost, nearly the price it cost to the Romans in the time of Pliny. In the time of the Portuguese, or about the sold at 10s. per pound.
 * Arbuthnot's Tables, page 160. JMr Gibbon says it was