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.

Usury, made unlawful by the Saving Faith, flourishes as in all the commercial centres of Islam. Foreign houses doing business at Zanzibar cannot afford to part with the ready money requisite to secure their regular and highly-profitable returns of trade. They therefore borrow at 6 to 9 per cent. large sums from the principal Arabs and Wasawahili; when lending they refuse less than 33 per cent. upon the best security, and I have heard of cases in which 40 per cent.—deducted also from the capital—was demanded. Amongst natives moneys advanced on landed security or bottomry bear interest of 15-20 per cent. per annum, and pious Shylock salves his conscience by the sale of an egg or a cucumber. As in Somaliland, Banyans and large traders advance small ventures of goods, such as a bale of cloth to the retail vendor, who during the season barters it upon the coast and in the interior for slaves and ivory, hide, copal, and grain. In these transactions the interest is enormous; consequently the merchant rolls in dollars, and the tradesman manages only to live.

The insurance of vessels is here, as in most parts of the East, a gambling transaction; barratry cannot be guarded against, and all manner of fraud is successfully practised. Kojahs and Banyans underwrite, working upon two systems—‘Fáliserí,’ a corruption of our ‘policy,’ because a regular agreement is written out; and ‘Patán Sulámat,’ (the safety of the keel); in the latter nothing can be claimed unless there be a total loss. It is, however, the popular form: when a vessel has been built and not paid for, or when money is wanted to finish her, the creditor insists upon Patán Salámat before she goes to sea. I may here add, that refitting at Zanzibar, as at Mauritius, is exorbitant: a spar worth $15 to $20 will be charged $350 to $370.

Between Sept. 16, 1832, and May 26, 1834, the arrivals of square-rigged vessels were 41 with 7559 tons. Dr Ruschenberger gives the items as follows: United States, 32 (5497 tons), including 4 whalers, and of these 20 were from Salim; English, 7 (1403), French, 1 (340), and Spanish, 1 (319).

Between 1852 and 1857 the Island was visited by a greatly increased number, as is shown by the following table.

Thus in five years the tonnage show an increase of 10,671. The French ships, however, whose arrivals have greatly increased, mostly came out in ballast, and loaded with sesamum, cocoa-meat, and cloves. Moreover, it became the custom to enter the ship twice: if, for instance, she visited the coast after touching at the Island, she appeared a second time upon the lists after her return. Thus, whilst the tonnage was greatly advanced, exportation did not keep pace with it.

In 1858 the returns of merchant shipping arrivals at the port of Zanzibar showed 89 of all nationalities, with 26,959 tons. In the next year this total fell off, owing to the cholera and political troubles, to 80 bottoms, with 23,340 tons. In 1861-2 the commerce was carried on by 55 ships, and 23 men-of-war visited or revisited the Island. In 1862-3 there were 57 trading vessels and 31 cruisers (Commercial Reports recorded at the Foreign Office from H. B. M.’s consuls).

I found it impracticable to obtain any information concerning the average or the total value of native cargoes.

Zanzibar being the general depôt for this portion of the African coast, shows a list of exports contrasting greatly with its industry. The staple productions of the Island are the cocoa-nut and cloves—of these details have been given in the preceding pages. The produce of the coast is contained in slaves, in copal, and in ivory of the finest description, hides and cowries, rafters and red pepper, ambergris and beeswax, hippopotamus’ teeth, and rhinoceros’ horn. In 1859 the export of ivory amounted to 488,600 lbs. (value £146,666); of copal to 875,875 lbs. (value £37,166); and of cloves to 4,860,100 lbs. (value £55,666). These figures are taken from the commercial reports of H. B. M.’s consuls, and are probably much understated. I have already mentioned most of the main items of exports. The following details will complete the list, and for further information I may refer the reader to Appendix No. I. (Commerce, Imports and Exports), the Lake Regions of Central Africa.

Beeswax is produced in small quantities upon the Island; the slaves, however, will not allow the hives to remain unplundered—they devour the contents, wax and all. It is also brought from the Chole islet and from the mainland: here, as in Abyssinia and Harar, hives are hung to the tall trees about the villages. The produce is like our ‘virgin honey,’ oily, but very impure: it greatly differs in taste; some of it is excellent, other kinds are almost flavourless. Upon the coast there is a dark and exceedingly sweet variety often found with the small bee smothered in it: the people declare that a spoonful of it will cause intoxication, like the celebrated produce of Asia Minor.

Hippopotamus’ teeth in 1857 were still sent to Europe and to Bombay, principally for making sword hilts and knife handles: in America porcelain was supplanting them at the dentists’. Rhinoceros’ horns, mentioned in the Periplus about Rhapta (chap. xvii.), were exported to Arabia and Central Asia. Hides and skins, chiefly of bullocks and goats, with spoils of the wild cattle, the zebra and the antelope, were brought for exportation from the Northern coast. Ivory was, after slaves, the only produce for which caravans visited the far interior, and both articles, which the expense of free porterage rendered inseparable, were sold to retail dealers on the coast. Sometimes it was dragged over the ground protected by grass and matting, with cords made fast to holes bored in the bamboo or hollow base fitting into the alveolar process. The best in the market was held to be the fine heavy material brought down from Ugogo by the Wanyamwezi porters, who, on their long journey, collect ivories of many different kinds. These are rufous outside, and abnormally heavy—a tusk apparently of 60 lbs. will weigh in the scales 70. The duty varies according to the district which supplies it: for instance, that of Unyamwezi is charged $14 for 36 lbs.; Mombasah, Lamu, and Kilwa, $4; the Pangani and Tanga countries $8, and Somaliland only $2. In the African animal the female’s tusk is often longer and thicker than in the long-legged variety of India and Ceylon. At the Cape of Good Hope, where the land is poor, the elephant may reach twelve feet, whilst northwards, where forage abounds, the average is three feet shorter, whilst the tusks are, according to travellers, much bulkier than in the taller beast. This may be explained by the more regular development of the defences where the animal is undisturbed by man. Ivory grows as long as its owner grows. At Zanzibar they declare that the animal which bears monster tusks is not, as might be expected, of mammoth stature: it is a moderate-sized beast, high in the forehand, and sloping away behind, like a hyæna. We have found it necessary to preserve our elephants in Ceylon, but in Africa the grounds extend from N. lat. 10° to S. lat. 25°, and clean across the Continent. There is no present fear of the market wanting supply: the annual deaths of over 100,000 would be a mere trifle considering the extent of country over which the herds roam.

Zanzibar exports her produce to the four quarters of the world as follows:

Europe and the United States take cocoa, Kopra (dried meat of the nut), cocoa-nut oil, and orchilla; copal, ivory, cloves and stems, hippopotamus’ teeth, tortoise-shell, and a little ambergris; cowries, hides, goat-skins, horns, gums, beeswax, and valuable woods in small quantities. The exports to France are chiefly sesamum and Kopra. There is no direct trade with Great Britain. Vessels from the United States usually touch, before going home, at Aden and Maskat, where they fill up with coffee and dates. India demands chiefly ivory, copal, and cloves; she also buys hippopotamus’ tusks, rhinoceros’ horns, cocoa-nuts, beeswax, tabkir or snuff, arrow-root, gums, and Zanzibar rafters. It is asserted in a journal of the R. Geographical Society (vol. xii., March, 1856) that Zanzibar Island and Coast have an annual export and import trade of £300,000 with Western, and of £150,000 with Eastern India. Arabia takes the same articles as Hindostan. Madagascar prefers British and foreign manufactured goods and coarse Bombay earthenware, flowered basins, and similar goods. This trade was declining in 1857, and vessels were not allowed to enter any of the ports. The Mrima or African coast requires American domestics, indigo-dyed cloths, cotton checks, common broad-cloths (especially crimson), Indian and Maskat stuffs, Surat and other caps, china and iron wares, brass chains, and brass and iron wires (Nos. 7 and 8). It also imports Venetian beads, a very delicate article of trade, each district having its own peculiar variety; subject also to perpetual change, and refusing to take any of the 400 kinds except those in fashion. Finally, a dangerous commerce, and highly disadvantageous to the white race, was carried on in arms and ammunition: coarse gunpowder was supplied in kegs; and one European house exported, it is said, in a single year 13,000 muskets, thus overdoing the trade. The weapon must have a black butt, and an elephant on the lock, otherwise it is hardly saleable; moreover, the price should not exceed three to four shillings. The old Tower musket was a prime favourite.

The following is a summary of the exports from the port of Zanzibar in 1859, when the East African Expedition left the coast.

The principal articles of export from the port of Zanzibar were as follows:

The following is a summary of the value of the import and export trade of Zanzibar, borrowed from the consular reports of 1864.

The distribution of the above trade was as follows:—

Zanzibar imports from Europe and America silks, cottons, chintzes, and calicoes, muskets and gunpowder, beads and gunny-bags, notions and knick-nacks. The Americans chiefly send ‘domestics’ from the Massachusetts Mills. This year some thousand pieces of English cotton were sold, to the detriment of that specialty, and in 1863 even American merchants were compelled by war to import Manchester goods. French vessels bring out little but specie, there being hardly any demand for French manufactured goods. The total of French imports in 1859 was $516,451, of which $400,000 were bullion and $41,000 Venetian beads. Imports from Great Britain pass through India. Hamburg ships are laden with commissioned articles, mostly English,—glass ware and mirrors, English lead, sail-cloth in small pieces, broad-cloths, and similar articles. From India come English manufactured goods, cotton piece-goods, long-cloths, inferior broad-cloths, beads, brass and iron wires, coarse cutlery (English and foreign), bar and round iron, hardware, English muskets, tin, pig-lead, copper, spelter, china and earthenware; cereals in general, but especially rice, ghi, sweet-oil (cocoa), bitter-oil (sesamum), spices and frankincense, sugar and sugar-candy. Maskat supplies principally ornamental cloths (lungi, &c.), salt, sharks’-flesh, and fish-oil. The African Mrima contributes chiefly slaves, ivory, and copal, coffee and tobacco, cocoas and cloves; cereals, especially Jowari or holcus; ghi, cowries, and other shells, Zanzibar rafters and firewood, rhinoceros’ horns and hippopotamus’hippopotamus’ teeth. Small pigs of excellent copper, and malachite of a fine quality, have been brought from the country of the Cazembe, and the analogy of Angola would lead us to expect rich mines in the interior. Madagascar contributes only tortoise-shell and a little rice, the latter husked or parboiled, to prevent it being used as seed by the importers. This custom is connected with some superstition: a few years ago the inhabitants of Socotra sold some she-goats to a ship’s crew, and complained that they were not visited by rain for several seasons. In 1863, wishing to introduce cocoa into Fernando Po, I bought a sack of seed from Prince Island, and found that all had been scalded. The trade with India and Arabia is carried on by ‘Daus’ and Batelas, of which there are neither registers nor returns. Weights and measures vary greatly at Zanzibar, where no three exactly correspond. There are no standards: stone is used instead of metal, and the rapacity of the seller has introduced notable differences into the sizes and contents of one and the same denomination.

The Wakiyyah, or ounce, the unit here as amongst most of the Arabic-speaking races, is the weight of a German dollar = Engl. avoirdupois, 15.50 drs.

The weight of the German crown thus regulated all others, and of the former 16 may be assumed in round numbers to form the Ratl, or Arab lb. Of course no standard is kept. Without wear the 16 coins should weigh 449.568 grammes, or about 4 grammes less than the English avoirdupois. According to Captain Guillain the average weighs only 442 grammes, and the loss becomes 7 grammes. Thus the Man, which should be 1.348 Kilo., is reduced to 1.326; and the Farsaleh of 12 Man from 16.184 Kilos to 15.912. Practically, in order to facilitate business, the Farsaleh or unit of higher value is made equal to 35 light lbs. avoirdupois or 15.874 Kilos, but the natives still assume the weight of the Man at 48 piastres. The Kandi is the unit of freight: thus the voyage to Bombay is said to cost $4.50 to $5 per Candy. The Kandi for ivory = 21 Farasileh (= 333.354 Kilos), for copal and cloves = 22 Farasileh. Tonnage is represented by the Jizleh, a very uncertain weight, of which 2.103 to 3 are equivalent to the Kandi.

The English pound avoirdupois is generally used. The Maskat Maund is 8¾ lbs. or 9 lbs., trebling that of Zanzibar, 2 lbs. 14 oz. 10 drs. Ivory and cloves, coffee, gums, and similar articles are mostly sold by the Farsaleh.^[78]

The measures of length, besides the English foot, which is generally recognized in commerce, are—

The Kadam or pace is roughly applied as a land measure. The learned use as itinerary distances the Hindu ‘Kos’ and the Persian Farsakh (parasang), without, however, any regularity. Marches are reckoned by the Sa’at, or hour, somewhat like the pipe of the S. African Boer.

The corn measures are—

The Kaylah, which is the standard, varies from 5 lbs. to 8 lbs., according to the grain or pulse measured. In parts of the Benadir it is a little more than half that of Zanzibar, and expresses only 2.50 Kibabahs. The Farrah also is of many different capacities; it is generally a jar whose capacity is determined by its contents in Kaylahs.

The currency at present is—

German crowns or Maria Theresa (the standard coin) now becoming rare, the following coins have been declared legal tenders at the rates here specified.

Formerly the Austrian Maria Theresa, coined at Milan, known as Girsh Aswad (black dollar), was the only legal tender. Its weight should be grammes 28.098. The Spanish or Pillar dollar, called Girsh Abyaz (white dollar), Abu Madfa’ (the ‘Father of Cannon’ from the columns), Girsh Moghrebi (the western dollar), and Abu Takeh (Father of Window, whence the common trade term ‘Patac’), generally equalled it in value. At times, however, there was an agio of 2 per cent. in favour of the Austrian. The Mexican dollar suffered discount of 5 to 10 per cent. in favour of the Maria Theresa. The Bolivian was unknown. The Company’s rupee was current, but valued at 220 to 223 per 100 Austrians. After abundant dunning on the part of the French, who with scant conscience or delicacy insisted upon their silver being taken, the late Sayyid ordered 110 five-franc pieces to be the equivalent of 100 Maria Theresas: the bazar, however, demanded 112.

It is curious that while the Half-doubloon never varies, the Doubloon is worth sometimes $18, sometimes $19.

Cloth is sold by the following measures:

The Saub or Tobe is at Zanzibar half-size of the Somali country. The Takah or piece varies greatly. That of ‘Merkani,’ American domestics, is generally of 30 yards. The Arabs are no judges of broad-cloth: remnants are usually imported, as none would venture upon a bale: often half a foot will be stolen from the whole length of the cloth, and a false selvage sewed on.

Beads are thus sold—

Ghee is sold by the eighth, quarter, or half Maund, or Maund (3 lbs.). The Kiski, or earthen pot, contains from 50 to 52 lbs. Vegetables and manioc are sold by the Pakhacheh بقاجه ‘package,’ or bundle, which varies greatly in size, according as the article is dear or cheap.

Salt is thus sold—

Coffee is sometimes sold by the Farsaleh of 7½ lbs., because that is the Mocha weight.

Dates are sometimes sold by the Farsaleh of 70 lbs.

Cocoa-nuts by the 100 or 1000.

Timber and hides by the Kurjah, or score. Fuel in little bundles.

The following is a tariff of articles purchasable in the bazar during the month of May, 1857. The reader, however, is warned that the price of almost everything was then exceedingly high.

Holcus or Jowari (Ar. Durrah and Taam, Kis. Mtámá, Ang. Kafir Corn)—