306 PRICES 



were paid in kind, and debts between the cultivator 

 and the money-lender, though reckoned in terms of 

 money, were usually settled in grain. The wages of 

 field labourers and of the village artisans were paid 

 almost entirely in grain, and it was therefore possible 

 for the cultivator in former days to make a large 

 number of transactions in the year without employing 

 money at all. Now that the self-sufficiency of the 

 village is being impaired, the occasions for the use 

 of money are largely increased. The tenant usually 

 pays his rent in money; he also employs mone}^ 

 along with bundles of corn, to pay his labourers ; a 

 few articles of foreign manufacture are coming into 

 common use, which are purchased at fairs, and for 

 these money is the only payment accepted. It follows 

 from this that the cultivator must receive part of the 

 payment for his produce in cash, and thus the occasions 

 for the use of money have been very considerably 

 increased, but what the extent of that increase has 

 been it is not possible to determine. 



The one factor which is capable of exact arithmetical 

 computation is the amount of money in the country ; 

 it is also the factor which has probably been of chief 

 importance in determining the value. From 1793 to 

 1893 India was a monometallic silver country — that is 

 to say, that the Indian mints were ready to coin into 

 rupees all the silver which was brought to them. The 

 rupee therefore circulated at the intrinsic value of the 

 silver of which it was composed. In these circum- 

 stances an increase in the quantity of silver brought 

 into the country would tend to depreciate the value 

 of the rupee; a decrease in the quantity of silver 

 imported would tend to raise its value. From 1863 

 onwards paper money (which has always remained 

 convertible) was issued, but as the total issue, without 

 coin reserve, probably represents little more than 

 2 per cent, of the total circulation, this may be 

 neglected here. 



