The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 19 of 55: 1620-1621; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 19 of 55: 1620-1621; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
[65] The _larin_ was a silver coin that takes its name from the city
of Lar in Persia. It has been current in a number of eastern countries
and districts, among them Persia, the Maldives, Goa, and the Malabar
coast, Ceylon, and Kandy. It has gone out of circulation, although
the name is preserved in certain copper coins at the Maldives. The
ancient coin was of various shapes, that of the Maldives being about
as long as the finger and double, having Arabic characters stamped on
it; that of Ceylon resembled a fishhook: those of Kandy are described
as a piece of silver wire rolled up like a wax taper. When a person
wishes to make a purchase, he cuts off as much of this silver as
is equal in value to the price of the article. Its probably first
mention by an European writer occurs in the _Lembrancas das Cousas de
India_ (_Subsidios_ iii, 53), in 1525, where the following table is
given: 2 fules = 1 dinar; 12 dinars = 1 tanga; 3 tangas 10 dinars =
1 new larin; 3 tangas 9 dinars = 1 old larin. At Cambaye (p. 38)
1 tanga larin = 60 reis, and 45 larins weighed 1 Portuguese marco,
or 50 grammes. Antonio Nunes (1554) in his _Livro dos Pesos_, says:
"At the port of Bengala, 80 couries = 1 pone; 48 pones = 1 larin. The
Portuguese marco of the time of Joao III, being equivalent to 2,500
reis, would make the larin worth 51,012 reis." Davy says that the
larin of Kandy was worth about 7d. in English currency. For detailed
information about the larin, see _Voyage of Pyrard de Laval, ut supra_,
i, p. 232 and note 2; and ii, p. 68.
[66] "Next, many watered camlets of Persia and Ormus, of all colours,
made of the wool of large sheep that have not curled fleeces like
ours. Of it they make also good store of cloaks and capes, called
by the Indians _Mansans_, and by the Portuguese 'Ormus _cambalis_;'
they are made of the same wool, in bands of different colours, each
four inches wide. Everyone takes these to sea for a protection from
the rain. The tissue is the same as of cloth." It was called "camlet,"
because made originally of camel's hair. See _ut supra_, ii, p. 240.
[67] The Venetian sequin, worth about 50 sols, which was silver money
and circulated at Goa. See _ut supra_, ii, p. 69.
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