I awake, and this pallid mask behold,
And I ask—Can this be the end supreme
Of the countless things of the days of old?
This clay, is it all of what used to be
In the Afric land by the Zingian Sea?
Isabel Burton.
APPENDIX I.
NOTES ON COMMERCIAL MATTERS AT ZANZIBAR IN
THE YEARS 1857-1859.
There was a great dearth of small change on the Island, and until A. D. 1849 broken sums were paid in Mtama or holcus grain, of which exceedingly variable measures constituted the dollar. The system reminds us of the Mexican cacao money and the almonds of British India. When Capt. Guillain (iii. 376-398) says ‘il existe aux Kiloua une monnaie de compte, nommée Doti,’ he confounds metallic specie with the African substitute of cotton cloth, the Doti, as will appear, measuring 8 cubits = 12 feet, more or less. ‘Shroffing’ was in early days a profitable trade: the Kojahs and Banyans offered the ruler, in later years, a considerable annual sum if he would retain the primitive currency. This infancy of the circulating system endured till 1840, when Sayyid Said imported from Bombay through H. B. M.’s consul some $5000 worth of the small copper coin called pice. Here there are no mints, of which some 16 exist at Maskat—private shops to which any man can carry his silver, see it broken up, and pay for the coining whatever the workmen may charge. At first 132 and even 133 pice were the change for a German crown: presently the shroffs, by buying up the copper, raised its value to 98. The discount (34 pice, or more than a quarter) of the salaries paid by the H. E. I. Company at Zanzibar became so great that the minor officials of the Consulate required an increase. When I landed at Zanzibar the German crown fetched in the bazar from 107 to 108 pice; in parts of the mainland where it was accepted, from 112 to 130. This fluctuating state of things was very properly put down with a high hand by Sayyid Majid, who ordered 128 pice to be the legal equivalent of a German crown, assuming it here as in India as equal to two Company’s rupees (1 rupee = 16 annas × 4 pice = 64 pice × 2 = 128 pice). In these lands he who holds the balance of justice must make things find their own level; however hazardous may be the interference with trade, it is sometimes necessary amongst barbarians to prevent it cutting its own throat.
The following statement of our losses at Bombay or Zanzibar may be useful to future travellers who are advised to bring out direct bills to H. B. M.’s Consulate. Here they must buy, despite high prices and roguery, cloth and wires, beads and cattle, or they run the risk of carrying useless stock. A letter of credit from a London banker for £500, payable at Bombay, realized only Co.’s rs 4720, the rate of exchange happening to be low. The value of 100 German crowns at Zanzibar then ranging between Co.’s rs 214 and 220, our letter of credit for Co.’s rs 4720 brought $2205. Thus assuming the rupee at 2s. and the dollar at 4s. (it is worth about 2d. more), our loss upon £500 amounted to £87.
Bills on England are generally purchaseable at a fair rate: until lately $5 have been paid for the pound sterling, and the exchange is now about $4.75. Nothing of the kind, however, is permanent at Zanzibar; there is no regular market, and the only rule is manfully to take the best advantage of a neighbour’s necessities.