Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait391903roya).pdf/208

 1510), Albuquerque "gave the word to take the royal flag, and the trumpets and kettle drums, and assemble all the men in the fleet, and ordered Tristao Déga to go and proclaim it; and he went with all this company of people all round the city, and at each proclamation that was made they scattered quantities of the new money over the heads of the crowds, which were great. and they went on proceeding in this manner round the city." (Vol. II, p. 131).

When a few months afterwards Goa had been retaken by the Moors, and Albuquerque had reconquered it, he established a new mint at Goa (Vol. III, p. 41).

Albuquerque arrived before Malacca in the middle of June 1511, made the first attack on July 25th, conquered it in August, and then took speedy measures for restoring order in the place, Ninachatu, a rich Hindu merchant, being of the greatest service to him in this matter. Ninachatu and some of the "Governors of the land" soon approached Albuquerque and told him what inconvenience the people suffered from the want of a currency, and begged he would give orders for some system of coinage. Albuquerque thereupon called together the merchants, govern- ors, and principal men of the city, and arranged with them that gold, silver, and pewter coins should be struck, substituting thus pewter for the copper coins of Goa and utilizing the natural wealth of tin in the Malay Peninsula. We saw above that the native coinage before the arrival of the Portuguese had been pewter, just as now-a-days coins of that metal are current in Trengganu and Kelantan.

The gold coin, called Catholico, should weigh a quarter of a tundia which, amongst the Portuguese, was worth a thousand reis. The silver coins, called Malaqueses, i. e. Malacca pieces, should have the same value of a quarter tundia. The pewter coins were to be of three different demoninations, viz:

1. dinheiro (i. e. money), the smallest coin, equal to two of the previously existing caixes of the ruler of Malacca, bearing the sphere of the King D. Manuel,

2. soldo, equal to ten dinheiros, 3. bastardo, equal to ten soldos.

A mint was immediately established, and orders were given that under pain of death the old coinage of the King of Malacca