ABSTRACT
Keynes's phrase in the letter to Lytton Strachey, when he said he was reading 'masses of economics', referred to the study of economics he had started in June 1905 as part of the preparation for the Civil Service exams. The habit of keeping an exact record of the work done was a replica of Neville Keynes's maniacal precision in keeping his own diary. As Mary Paley Marshall recalled in her notes for Keynes's obituary of her husband, Marshall gave questions once a week on a part of the subject which he had not lectured over, and then answered the questions in class. When Keynes met Abrahams, he was already acquainted with the Marshallian oral monetary tradition and had some knowledge of the man himself, who had been a source of private counselling and public support for the Indian administration. Now that Keynes had become a Cambridge economist, specializing in monetary issues, these personal and scientific links proved useful.
