Ells. Long ells find a ready sale. The consumption of red is very great. There should be one hundred pieces of red to twenty of green.
Woollens. Thin ladies’ cloths only are in demand; heavy, thick broadcloths will not sell. From September to December, there is a demand for them. Red and green are the favourite colours. In a bale of twelve pieces, each seventeen and a half to eighteen yards in length, there should be five of red, four of green, one of yellow, one of light blue, one of light purple.
Steel, in tubs of a small size, sells readily in small parcels.[†]
The inland trade is a very important branch, especially with Lau, and the Chinese province of Yunan, &c. This domestic traffic is carried on, on the Menam, in flat-boats, and on bamboo-rafts. Boats leave Lau in August and September, when the river is swollen by the periodical rains, and arrive at Bang-kok in November and December. They bring stic-lac, benzoin, raw silk, ivory, beeswax, horns, hides, timber, &c., &c. The articles of merchandise exported into China, through Lau, consist of coarse woollens, broadcloths, cutlery, gold, copper, lead, &c., &c. The Chinese are the principal foreign traders. The Siamese prosecute a large foreign and coasting trade to China, Camboja, Cochin-China, the Malay peninsula, to Singapore, to the eastern coast of Sumatra, to the bay of Bengal, &c., &c. The traffic between the countries lying on the shores of the straits of Malacca and the bay of Bengal, is generally conducted by three different routes, across the Malay peninsula; and then reshipped, in boats, on the gulf of Siam, to the capital: the imports being British and Indian goods, opium, esculent swallows’ nests, &c., &c.
The population of the capital and Bang-kok, with their suburbs, may fairly be rated at four hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, I deem it best to state this fact, so that it may be seen that, in a commercial point of view, it is a place of great importance.
COINS AND WEIGHTS.
The Siamese coin no money strictly speaking; they use bent bars of silver, made nearly round and stamped with a star. Those of the largest size are called baats, and by Europeans ticals. They are of the value of sixty-one cents and a small fraction. The halves are denominated two salings, the quarters one saling; there are also eighths, called one tuang. They have a gold currency formed in the same manner and of various values; they have no copper or tin coin: occasionally, some of the latter may be seen brought from Calantin, &c.: cowries or bias are used in their stead.
The currency is as follows: one thousand and fifty cowries or bias make one tuang; two tuangs, one saling; four salings, one baat or tical.
Imaginary or money of account: four baats, one tamling; twenty tamlings, one catty or eighty baats; fifty catties, one pecul or one thousand baats.[†]
The weights are the same as in China, being the pecul and catty; one hundred catties making one pecul; one catty, one and a third pounds avoirdupois. The fathom is the measure in most frequent use, being six feet, six inches; also, twelve finger-breadths make one span; two spans, one cubit; four cubits, one fathom; twenty fathoms, one sen; one hundred sens, one yuta or yut.