Viceroy: Lord Lansdowne

The Age Of Stars

Silver rupee, Presidency Banks, and money drawn on India from London.

Vol. XIXThe edition of 1893 · Crown Rule19 records
Viceroy
Lord Lansdowne
Secretary of State
Lord Kimberley

Bank of Bengal rate

4.88%

+1.38 pts on 1892

Bank of Bombay rate

4.9%

+1.4 pts on 1892

Bank of Madras rate

5.27%

+1.77 pts on 1892

Council Bills

₹15.72 cr

−40.6% on 1892

Indian currency and mint

Closure of the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver

The Government of India, by proclamation of 26 June 1893, closed the mints to the free coinage of silver, ending the silver standard and beginning the gold-exchange standard. Gold was not made legal tender at first; the Government undertook to issue currency notes in exchange for gold at 1s 4d per rupee, in England, pending a gold standard.

VerifiedOfficial record. Source: Herschell Committee report 1893; ; Ambedkar, The Problem of the Rupee (1923), ch. 4; https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.84521 (archive.org)

Banking

2 items

Indian exchange

Indian Currency Committee (Herschell)

Appointed 1892, reported 1893. Found that the rupee's external value could not be maintained on an automatic silver standard and recommended closing the mints and creating a gold reserve, the origin of the Gold Standard Reserve. Its members also relied on Bagehot's argument that the depreciation was temporary, which Ambedkar calls 'grossly deceived'.

VerifiedOfficial record. Source: Herschell Committee report 1893; ; Ambedkar, The Problem of the Rupee (1923), ch. 4; https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.84521 (archive.org)

Indian currency and the gold/silver question

Herschell Committee

The 1893 Committee on Indian Currency (Herschell), its report is now located on archive.org, where earlier passes did not find it

VerifiedOfficial record. Source: india.history.resource.107146

Turn to another year

1875 to 2017