The Pearl of Asia/Chapter 35

by Jacob T. Child

Interior of the Throne Room.

XXXV.
The Money Standard of Siam.

Silver is the standard of values in Siam, no gold being coined except a few pieces that the King distributes on coronation or cremation ceremonies. The gold pieces are similar in design to those of the silver coinage and possess twenty times their value. Their table of money and weights is as follows:

Fifty Biah make one Solot, two Solots one At, two Ats one See-o or Pai, two See-o one Seek, two Seeks one Fuang, two Fuangs one Salung, four Salungs one Baht or Tical, four Bahts one Tamlu'ng, twenty Tamlu'ng one Chang, fifty Changs one Hahp, one hundred Habps one Pahrah. The biah or cowdery shell has been abolished. The Solot, At, See-o and Seek are copper pieces; the Fuang, Salung and the Baht or Tical are silver pieces. The denominations after Baht represent weight, the Siamese chang is equivalent to two Chinese catties and is the equal of two and two-thirds English pounds. No law of Siam affects the Chinese standard of weight. The catty can be no more nor less than what the law of China ordains. As the export trade is greatly in excess of the imports, large quantities of Mexican dollars are brought into the country and recoined into ticals and smaller currency The late King Somdetch P'ra Chaum Klow established the present law, making five ticals the equivalent of three Mexican dollars, Mexican silver being the standard of the Asiatic coast. The importer takes his dollars to the mint and the officers there heat them red-hot to detect counterfeits, and if genuine, ticals are given in exchange. This law makes the par value of the tical sixty cents of a dollar, the salung fifteen and the fuang eight and a half cents, the tamlu'ng $2.40, the chang $48.00, the hahp $2,400 and the p'arah $240,000.

Previous to and during a portion of the reign of the late king the small change of the country consisted of sea-shells, known as the cowrie, and designated by the natives as the bi'ah; the purchasing power of the bi'ah was about fifteen hundred to the fuang or eight cents, notwithstanding the government attempted to fix their value at 800 for a fuang. At that time the coins were all round, almost bullet-shaped, millions of which are still in circulation, but the King improved the appearance of the coin by having it struck similar to that of other nations, instead of the round bullets, with two small stamps on them. The coins now issued have the profile of the King on them and are really pretty, showing that the Siamese are abandoning some of their old prejudices, one of which was that no one should make the profile of His Majesty for general circulation, as it was considered a gross violation of Siamese etiquette should it be multiplied and sold as foreign pictures were. The silver coins are the standard of weight in the lower provinces, the rupee in the Laos states. Occasionally one of the gold pieces can be purchased, but they are rare and bring large prices by coin collectors, being regarded as curiosities. There are a large number of counterfeits in circulation among the bullet-shaped coin, owing to the fact that a number of years ago the master of the mint, unknown to the King, manufactured an immense number of copper ticals, and being an adept in metallurgy plated them with silver, and put them in circulation. He was arrested, his property confiscated, and I was informed that he was still in jail, a prisoner, but demented. The Chinese have also put a large number of bogus coins in circulation. A couple of years since the Hong Kong and Shanghae bank commenced the issue of paper money and it grew rapidly in popular favor, as paper is so much easier carried than weighty silver, and it was no novel sight to see eight or ten coolies on their way to the banks or mercantile houses carrying large sacks of silver coin, and frequently boat-loads of ticals are seen on their way up the river to pay for teak and vice; and cart-loads, escorted by soldiers on their way from the interior, taxes to be paid into the royal treasury, frequently from ten to fifteen in the train, all heavily loaded, each drawn by a couple of bullocks.