United States or Republic of the Congo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Every new and full moon, when the tides are at the highest, the small barks that come in and go out are quite innumerable. These barks are laden with all kinds of spices, with silks of China, sandal-wood, elephants teeth, velvets of Vercini, great quantities of Pannina, which comes from Mecca, chequins or gold coins worth 7s. each sterling, and various other commodities.
Beside the ninepences and fourpence-ha'-pennies, there were bits and half-bits, pistareens, picayunes, and fips. Of gold pieces there were the johannes, or joe, the doubloon, the moidore, and pistole, with English and French guineas, carolins, ducats, and chequins.
At Feluchia a small city on the Euphrates, the merchants pull their boats to pieces or sell them for a small price; as a boat that cost forty or fifty chequins at Bir sells only at Feluchia for seven or eight chequins.
The ships that come from the Red Sea frequent the ports of Pegu and Ciriam, bringing woollen cloths, scarlets, velvets, opium, and chequins, by which last they incur loss, yet they necessarily bring them wherewith to make their purchases, and they afterwards make great profit of the commodities which they take back with them, from Pegu.
A mongrel collection of coins could be found, passing at varying rates in the different States English pounds, shillings and pence, Spanish dollars, joes, half-joes, pistoles and moidores, French guineas, carolins and chequins but no United States coins. Even this money was soon drawn off to Europe, because British exporters demanded cash until the Revolutionary debts had been settled.
Word Of The Day