Excerpt from the Memoirs of Ma Huan

THE COUNTRY OF KU-LI [ CALICUT] [This is] the great country of the Western Ocean. Setting sail from the anchorage in the country of Ko-chih, you travel north-west, and arrive [here] after three days. The country lies beside the sea. [Travelling] east from the mountains for five hundred, or seven hundred, li, you make a long journey through to the country of K’an-pa-i. On the west [the country of Ku-li] abuts on the great sea; on the south it joins the boundary of the country of Ko-chih; [and] on the north side it adjoins the territory of the country of Hen-nu-erh. ‘The great country of the Western Ocean’ is precisely this country. In the fifth year of the Yung-lo [period] the court ordered the principal envoy the grand eunuch Cheng Ho and others to deliver an imperial mandate to the king of this country and to bestow on him a patent conferring a title of honour, and the grant of a silver seal, [also] to promote all the chiefs and award them hats and girdles of various grades. [So Cheng Ho] went there in command of a large fleet of treasure-ships, and he erected a tablet with a pavilion over it and set up a stone which said ‘ Though the journey from this country to the Central Country is more than a hundred thousand li, yet the people are very similar, happy and prosperous, with identical customs. We have here engraved a stone, a perpetual declaration for ten thousand ages. The king of the country is a Nan-k’un man; he is a firm believer in the Buddhist religion; [and] he venerates the elephant and the ox. The population of the country includes five classes, the Muslim people, the Nan-k’un people, the Che-ti people, the Ko-ling people, and the Mu-kuapeople. The king of the country and the people of the country all refrain from eating the flesh of the ox. The great chiefs are Muslim people; [and] they all refrain from eating the flesh of the pig. Formerly there was a king who made a sworn compact with the Muslim people, [saying] ‘You do not eat the ox; I do not eat the pig; we will reciprocally respect the taboo’; [and this compact] has been honoured right down to the present day.
The chief and the Che-ti, with his excellency the eunuch, all join hands together, and the broker then says ‘ In such and such a moon on such and such a day, we have all joined hands and sealed our agreement with a hand-clasp; whether [the price] be dear or cheap, we will never repudiate it or change it.’ After that, the Che-ti and the men of wealth then come bringing precious stones, pearls, corals, and other such things, so that they may be examined and the price discussed; [this] cannot be settled in a day; [if done] quickly, [it takes] one moon; [if done] slowly, [it takes] two or three moons.’ Once the money-price has been fixed after examination and discussion, if a pearl or other such article is purchased, the price which must be paid for it is calculated by the chief and the Wei-no-chi who carried out the original transaction; [and] as to the quantity of the hemp-silk or other such article which must be given in exchange for it, goods are given in exchange according to [the price fixed by] the original hand-clasp - there is not the slightest deviation. In their method of calculation, they do not use a calculating-plate; for calculating, they use only the two hands and two feet and the twenty digits on them; and they do not make the slightest mistake; [this is] very extraordinary. The king uses gold of sixty per cent [purity] to cast a coin for current use; it is named a pa-nan; the diameter of the face of each coin is three fen eight li [in terms of] our official ts’un it has lines on the face and on the reverse; [and] it weighs one fen on our official steelyard. He also makes a coin of silver; it is named a ta-erh; each coin weighs about three li; [and] this coin is used for petty transactions…

Via Prof. R. Kent Guy, University of Washington, http://faculty.washington.edu/qing/huan_ying-yai_sheng-lan%5B1%5D.pdf