DEPRECIATION OF MONEY 311 



to above, an estimate of the active coinage for each 

 year from 1835 to 1895, which I have included in the 

 table ; but all conclusions based upon it should be 

 accepted with reserve, because the estimates of 'coin 

 hoarded ' and ' coin melted into ornaments,' upon 

 which it is in part founded, are no more than con- 

 jectures, though ingenious conjectures. I am inclined 

 to believe that, however much uncertainty may attach 

 to the particular figures, the general tendency of the 

 currency is rightly estimated. There is some evidence 

 to show that there was an appreciation of money in 

 the years between 1835 an d 1854. I have come across 

 complaints by district officers of the scarcity of coin 

 during this period, and the general course of prices 

 in the first half of the century is certainly not up- 

 wards, though too much reliance cannot be placed on 

 the evidence from the price-lists at our disposal, 

 because the years 1847, 1848, and 1849 were years of 

 exceptionally abundant harvests in most districts. 

 The rapid expansion of the currency which Mr. 

 Atkinson estimates after the year 1856 is certainly 

 corroborated by the price-lists, and I am disposed to 

 accept his general conclusions, because they are in 

 such close harmony with the results which are arrived 

 at by the examination of phenomena which he did not 

 investigate. 



I have attempted to show that the returns of the 

 up-country markets prove that a marked rise in prices 

 took place after the decade 1850-60; that rise is 

 sufficiently explained by the great expansion of the 

 currency which followed as a natural consequence 

 upon the great discoveries of the precious metals in 

 the middle of the century. There may have been 

 other contributing causes, but this cause is in itself 

 sufficient to account for a very considerable deprecia- 

 tion of the rupee. It is sometimes argued that the 

 rise in the price of food-grains is due to the export to 

 Europe, to which rice and wheat are sent in consider- 



