Chapter LXX: Section V

_Of the Weights and Money of Calicut, and of the places whence they procure their Spices_[1].

Having already treated concerning the articles of commerce of all kinds in the Indies, it is proper to give some account of the prices and weights of these. In the city of Calicut a _bahar_ of nutmegs is sold for 450 _favi_. A bahar consists of four quintals, of 100 pounds each, and twenty _favis_ are equal to a ducat. A bahar of cinnamon costs 390 favi. A _faracula_, or the twentieth part of a bahar of dried ginger, is six favi. A faracula of candied ginger is twenty-eight favi. A bahar of tamarinds thirty favi. A bahar of the best pepper 400 favi. A bahar of _zerombeci_ forty favi. A bahar of myrabolans 560 favi. A bahar of zedoary thirty favi. A bahar of red sanders eighty favi. A bahar of lac 260 favi. A bahar of _sanasius_ 160. A bahar of mastic 430 favi. A _faracula_ of camphor 160. A bahar of pepper 360. A faracula of frankincense five favi. A faracula of benzoin six favi. A faracula of aloes wood 400 favi. A faracula of cassia eleven favi. A faracula of rhubarb 400 favi. A bahar of cloves 600 fevi. A faracula of opium 400 favi. A bahar of white sanders 700 favi. A mitrical of ambergris, or six ounces and a quarter. A bahar contains twenty faraculas. A faracula fourteen aratollae and a third; as twenty-three Venetian aratollae are equal to twenty-two Portuguese pounds. A golden ducat is equal to twenty favi.

As to those things which are carried from Europe for sale at Calicut, a faracula of brass sells for forty-five favi. A faracula of white coral for 1000. A faracula of silver for twenty favi. A faracula of spurious coral for 300. A faracula of alum twenty. An almenum of saffron sells for eighty favi: the almenum exceeds the Portuguese pound two aratollae and a half, and is therefore equal to about three Venetian pounds.

It appears proper to mention the regions from whence the various spices are brought to Calicut. Pepper is brought from a certain tower near the coast, about fifty leagues beyond Calicut. Cinnamon comes from a country called _Zolon_, Ceylon, 260 leagues beyond Calicut, and from no other place. Cloves come from the district of _Meluza_, which is twelve Portuguese leagues from Calicut, and is in the country of Cananore. Nutmegs and mastic come from _Meluza_, which is 740 leagues from Calicut[2]. Castor, which is musk, comes from a certain region called Pegu, 500 leagues from Calicut. Fine pearls come from the coast of _Armuzi_[3], 700 leagues from Calicut. Spikenard and myrabolans from the province of _Columbaia_[4], 600 leagues from Calicut. Cassia _in twigs_[5] is procured in the territory of Calicut. Frankincense is brought from _Saboea_[6], 800 leagues distant. Aloes-wood, rhubarb, camphor, and calinga, is sent from the country of Chiva[7], 4000 leagues from Calicut. Myrrh from the province of _Fastica_[8], 700 leagues distant. Calicut produces _zeromba_[9]; and Cananore sends cardamoms, being only twelve leagues distant. Long pepper is found in _Same_[10]. Benzoin from _Zan_, 700 miles from Calicut. Zedoary is produced in the territory of Calicut. Lac comes from the city of _Samoterra[11], 500 leagues distant. Brasil wood from the region of _Tannazar_, 500 leagues. Opium from the coast of _Adde_, 700 leagues.

[1] This Section is taken from the _Novus Orbus_ of Grynaeus, p 63. in
which it forms part of the navigations from Lisbon to Calicut,
attributed to the pen of Aloysius Cadamosto. The information it
contains respecting the principal commodities then brought from India
to Europe, and their prices, is curious: Yet there is some reason to
suspect that the author, or editor rather, has sometimes interchanged
the bahar and the faracula, or its twentieth part, in the weights of
the commodities. Several of the names of things and places are
unintelligible, probably from corrupt transcription.--E.

[2] Meluza may possibly be the city of Malacca, then a great emporium of
Indian trade; but it is impossible to reconcile or explain Meluza in
Cananore twelve leagues from Calicut, and Meluza 740 leagues from
thence.--E.

[3] This may possibly refer to the island of Ramisseram in the straits of
Manaar, between Ceylon and the Coromandel coast, near which the famous
pearl fishery is still carried on.--E.

[4] Evidently Cambaya or Guzerat.--E.

[5] Probably Cassia lignea, or in rolled up bark like twigs, to
distinguish it from the drug called Cassia fistula.--E.

[6] Perhaps the coast of Habesh on the Red Sea.--E.

[7] Probably a typographical error for China.--E.

[8] Alluding to some part of the coast of Arabia.--E.

[9] Perhaps Zedoary, repeated afterwards under its right name.--E.

[10] Same and Zan probably are meant to indicate some of the Indian
islands. Same may be Sumatra. Zan may be some port in Zangibar, on the
eastern coast of Africa.--E.

[11] Samoterra probably alludes to some port in the Bay of Bengal.
Tannazar, almost certainly Tanaserim in Siam. Adde, probably is Adel
or Aden in Arabia.--E.