ey. This reform was very
unwelcome to the Portuguese factors and officials, who had hitherto
made large profits by {162} selling the European goods and embezzling
part of the price paid for them.

One interesting proceeding of Albuquerque was his establishment of a
new coinage, both at Goa and at Malacca. After the first capture of
the future capital of Portuguese India, Timoja, whom he had made
governor of the island, came with the principal inhabitants of the
city and begged Albuquerque to strike some new money. The Governor
replied, after holding a council of his captains, that he could not
venture to assume one of the chief prerogatives of royalty without
first obtaining the permission of the King of Portugal. But the need
of a new currency was so urgent that Timoja and the inhabitants made
a fresh petition that, if the Governor would not issue coins of his
own, he would allow those of the King of Bijapur to pass current.
This argument was irresistible, and Albuquerque established a mint
for the coinage of gold, silver, and copper, under the
superintendence of Tristao de Ga. The new money was inaugurated with
an imposing ceremony. A proclamation was issued that the King of
Bijapur's coins should not be kept or passed under severe penalties,
and that whoever had any was to exchange it at the mint for the new
coins. Albuquerque did not invent new measures of value; he adopted
the Hindu values and simply gave Portuguese names to coins which he
minted of the size and weight of those then in circulation in the
country.[6] In Malacca however he {163} appeared as an originator.
The only coins used there were made of pewter or tin; there was no
gold or silver coinage, and trade was carried on by barter. Gold and
silver was brought into the Peninsula from China and Siam, but it was
used as merchandise and not as money. Albuquerque altered this, and
established for the first time a gold and silver currency. But he was
too wise to neglect the original native money. The tin mines of the
peninsula were made crown property, and tin and pewter coins were
struck of the old values. The new currency was inaugurated at Malacca
as it had been at Goa, with a grand ceremony, which is fully
described in the _Commentaries_, in which it is quaintly remarked
that the people especially approved of the distribution among
themselves of the new coins, which were scattered by the Portuguese
officials from the back of an elephant.

[Footnote 6: