César Cornejo Fuster (asker) Dec 7, 2020:

Perdón. Creí haber copiado el contexto pero no ha salido completo en la pregunta. Sería el siguiente:
"Treacher’s letter to the U.K. Foreign Minister describes his discussion about the financial terms of the arrangement:
<<His Highness [the Sultan] also consulted me, in a very intelligent manner, on several other points, such as the amount he should ask, &c., and in the advice I ventured to give I endeavoured, so far as possible not to lose sight of His Highness’s own interest while not opposing those of the proposed British Company, which already holds from Brunei a concession of the territories in question.

The Sultan assured me that at the present moment he receives annually from this portion of his dominions the sum of 5,000 dollars, namely 300 busings of seed pearls from the Lingabo River alone, which at 10 dollars a busing comes to 3,000 dollars per annum, and about 2,000 dollars from four birds-nest caves in the Kinabatangan River, which are his family possessions.>>

Ahora veo que Althea ha encontrado la carta de Treacher que, efectivamente, era un representante del Gobierno británico en Borneo del Norte en el siglo XIX.

Althea Draper Dec 7, 2020:

Busing (moving people by bus) is a term mostly used in the USA. In the UK we use the word 'bussing'. I seriously doubt that they bought pearls by the cartload (300 shipments of pearls in one year would be an absolutely amazing amount to originate from one river). At that time, they usually bought them or traded for them by weight eg buddams in India, mommes in Japan. As trade then wouldn't necessarily have used a regular currency, it may have been that other commodities that were swapped for the pearls.

Busing is possibly a term that originates in Borneo. The Bidayuh word for a cat is 'busing', there is a mountain called 'Bukit Busing', and 'busing' is a local name for the Bruguiera sexangula mangrove plant. It may be worth asking if anyone in the Malay forums know what 'busing' means.

Ana Lombao Dec 7, 2020:

Manchester fue la primera ciudad en tener una línea de autobús en 1824 en territorio británico. Lógicamente eran de tracción animal. El mismo medio de transporte podría estar usándose en Borneo en la época. Los autobuses de la época se inspiraban en las antiguas diligencias con capacidad para más personas. Si se puede transportar personas, se puede transportar mercancía. De ahí que pudiera darse una analogía y que busing se pueda referir simplemente a transporte. No he encontrado ninguna referencia de busing en el contexto de pesos, medidas o moneda.

Althea Draper Dec 7, 2020:

Treacher's letter "The Sultan assured me that at the present moment he receives annually from this portion of his dominions the sum of 5,000 dollars, namely 300 busings of seed pearls from the Lingabo River alone, which at 10 dollars a busing comes to 3,000 dollars per annum, and about 2,000 dollars from four birds’-nest caves in the Kinabatangan River, which are his family possessions."

'Busings' looks like a currency, weight or volume. (I doubt it has anything to do with buses as this is from 19th century Borneo.)

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1878/01/22/philippine-cla...

Ana Lombao Dec 7, 2020:

Lisa, creo que Treacher's letter podría estar refiriéndose a la persona que escribe la carta.

Jesús de Cos Dec 7, 2020:

seed pearls Normalmente, "seed pearls" son "aljófares", perlas pequeñas. Las perlas de río son pequeñas y deformes, así que encajaría. Pero insisto en que falta contexto. "Busing" es "transporte", aunque se suela aplicar a transporte escolar.

Lisa Rosengard Dec 7, 2020:

No cocnozco ni encuentro bien la palabra 'busings'. Creo que 'seed peals' serían 'semillas de perlas' o 'perlas de semillas'. Creo que menciona una 'carta de un traidor' ('Treacher's letter') dirigido al ministerio del extranjero del Reino Unido sobre términos de acuerdos financieros.

Jesús de Cos Dec 7, 2020:

falta contexto ¿Podrías poner la expresión en el contexto en el que aparece, por favor? La cita incluida al pie no aclara nada. Gracias. Saludos.