Monday 31 December 2012
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE INDIAN CURRENCY SYSTEM
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE INDIAN CURRENCY SYSTEM AND THE INSTITUTIONS OF AN IMPERIALIST SYSTEM OF EXPLOITATION
Until the coming of the British in India, the Indian economy lacked a unified currency standard. The country was divided into smaller kingdoms and territories and each territory had their own currency standard of diferent fineness. The multiplicity of coins in circulation posed a serious problem for the East India Company to further their imperialist interest in India.
This article highlights the important developments which occurred in unification of diferent standards of currencies in vogue in dferent provinces of the then India. The next subsequent sections deal with the introduction of monometallic silver standards in India and integration of the economy of India with the rest of the world.
The severe depreciation of silver led to the erosion in value of India's currency in the nineteenth century and the whole world gained at the cost of India. Finally, the paper describes the plunder and exploitation of India's resources even after the introduction of gold standard in India and the pauperized and amputated India's economy on the eve of India's independence.
The Foundations of the Indian Currency System
The pre British India was characterized by
an economic system which lacked the solid
foundations of any monetary and fiscal policies
to goven effectively such a huge country. This
system continued until the advent of the East
India Company on the Indian soil.
With the coming of the Company in India a new
economic system heralded in the territory of
India and the rudderless economy of India was
given a new direction by the British imperialist.
The Company following their victory at
Plassey exacted about 6 million during a short
span of 8 years from 1757-65. In 1765 after their
victory at Buxar over the combined forces of a
deposed Nawab of Bengal,Oudh and the titular
mughal Emperor, the Company secured the
Diwani of Bengal.
After meeting civil and military expenses, the Company was left with a large surplus of about one-third of the net revenues over 1765 to 1770 when Bengal was brought under direct Company rule.
The country got nothing in return for this transfer of wealth. It was in fact thinly disguised plunder.
When British rule was securely established and more settled conditions came to prevail, the
earlier ways of open and unashamed plunder
gave way to characteristic imperialist system of colonial exploitation which the Indians were
hardly aware off in that period.
But the Company was feeling that this Was
not an easy task since the India of that era was
divided into various provinces and each
province had their own set of the so called
monetary and fiscal policies.
Moreover, the country lacked a unified currency and there
were multiplicity of coins and currency in
circulation, each coin having different face
value and metallic content. At the close of the
eighteenth century, it has been estimated that
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Friday 28 December 2012
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