½ Tanga – Portuguese India

In 1678, the currency situation in Portuguese India, centered at Goa, was a complex tapestry of official Portuguese issues, pervasive foreign coinage, and chronic scarcity. The official currency was the Portuguese real, with coins minted at the Goa mint, including the gold cruzado and silver tanga. However, the Estado da India's declining economic power and the immense trade networks of the Indian Ocean meant that local and regional currencies often held more practical authority. The most dominant of these was the Mughal silver rupee, which served as the de facto benchmark for high-value trade across western India, alongside a multitude of other coins like the Venetian ducat, the Spanish piece of eight, and various smaller local copper and lead coins (bazarucos) used in everyday transactions.

This monetary pluralism created constant challenges for the Portuguese administration. The value of coins fluctuated based on their metallic purity and weight, leading to intricate and often disputed exchange rates. The chronic shortage of official Portuguese specie, exacerbated by the Crown's own fiscal difficulties and the siphoning of silver to Lisbon, forced the local economy to rely heavily on the inflow of foreign coins through trade. Furthermore, the widespread practice of clipping and counterfeiting, especially of the ubiquitous bazarucos, eroded trust and complicated commerce, necessitating frequent official proclamations (bandos) to reassert the value or demonetize certain batches of debased coinage.

Ultimately, the currency scene reflected the broader geopolitical reality: Portuguese territorial and economic control was contracting, while its survival depended on integration into Asian commercial systems. The Estado da India’s monetary policy was largely reactive, struggling to manage a system it could not dictate. The reliance on the Mughal rupee, in particular, symbolized a shift from imperial dominance to pragmatic adaptation, as Goa’s economy was inextricably linked to the financial currents of the wider region rather than being a self-contained Lusitanian enclave.