ABSTRACT
The bark of Indian currency has sometimes sailed through calm waters but has oftener than not been tossed in stormy seas. The captains have been many. In Mughal times, although the revenue was reckoned in copper dams, silver rupees formed the chief currency of the country. Mohurs were struck mainly for making presents and receiving tributes but no legal ratio was fixed between gold and silver. It was in southern India alone that gold hun or pagoda was the standard coin. With the break-up of the Mughal Empire after the death of Aurangzeb, every adventurer assumed the power of striking coins as the easiest and most incontestable emblem of sovereignty. The result was a multiplicity of currency in various stages of debasement. Long before the East India Company had come into power in Bengal, there had been a mint at Madras, which converted 89½ oz. of dollar silver into 218 rupees.
