ABSTRACT
To the English after 1757 the currency situation in Bengal appeared most chaotic and confused. When the British arrived in India, they encountered a variety of currencies in this country. More than a thousand kinds of gold and silver coins with different standards of weight and fineness were in circulation. Within Bengal there were mints in Calcutta and Dacca, Patna and Murshidabad but the coins struck at these hunts did not exchange at the same value. The most important cause of the declining money supply in the market was the cessation of the import of bullion, chiefly silver, from England after 1757. It has been estimated that during the period from 1708 to 1756, the English Company had imported into Bengal bullion worth £ 64,06,023. The shortage of currency led to an increasing pressure on the available money supply. There took place a phenomenal increase in the English Company’s Investment’ after 1767.
