Note 354 — DESCRIPTION OF THE EAST INDIES AND COUNTRIES ON THE SEABORD OF THE INDIAN OCEAN IN 1514. [3] (continued 4)

Fano, fanam, fanão—a weight for weighing rubies, according to Bluteau = 1 quilat or carat; according to the Dicco. Enciclopedico, Madrid, 1853, and the Encyclopedie of Diderot and D'Alembert = to 2 carats of Venice. Also a coin equal to two Spanish reals or twenty Portuguese reis, or ten of which made a cruzado. The author has said in another place that it is equal to thirty-six maravedis. The following table of coins will be useful with reference to the prices named in this work.

Ducado = 375 maravedis.

Dobla = 365 "

Florin = 265 "

Real = 34 "

These maravedis were worth double those of the present time, in which a real contains 34 maravedis, so that a fanam would be worth 2 reals or half a peseta = 6d. The author of the Escuela de leer Letras Antiguas, from which these figures are taken, has added lists of prices at different times as guides to the value of coins.

In 1348, law of Don John I.

Fanega of wheat 15 maravedis.

Ditto barley 10 "

Ditto oats 8 "

Cubit of French cloth 60 "

Ditto Flanders or English cloth 50 "

Day's wages from November to March 3 "

Ditto ditto March to November 4 "

Each yoke for ploughing all day 10 "

A servant by the year 100 "

A maid ditto 50 "

For grinding a fanega of wheat 2 "

A thousand tiles 60 "

Ditto bricks 55 "

A fanega of mortar 6 "

Ditto lime 5 "

An ox 200 "

A calf 180 "

A pound of mutton 2 "

A hare 3 "

A rabbit 2 "

A fowl 4 "

A goose 6 "

A pigeon 3 "

A partridge 5 "

These maravedis were worth 22½ actual maravedis, or about 2d. each.

In 1524 the fanega of wheat was fixed at 70 maravedis. Ditto ditto of barley " 40 "

These maravedis were worth two of the actual ones.

1865, a fanega of wheat = 50 reals.