Bazaruco

The bazaruco was a denomination inherited by the Portuguese from pre-colonial Ceylonese monetary practice — the name itself derives from the Arabic *bazar*, reflecting the Indian Ocean trade networks that predated European arrival. Portugal's colonial administration recognized that local commerce depended on small-denomination copper coinage and continued issuing it rather than imposing metropolitan monetary standards, a pragmatic concession to economic reality on the island.

Production spanned the slow erosion of Portuguese control in Ceylon, ending as the Dutch VOC completed its campaign to expel them — Colombo fell in 1656.