│1912–1913│184,41│ │ │ │ │ │ │
└────────–┴──────┴──────┴──────┴────–┴──────–┴──────┴──────–┘
(a) This column is derived from the figures given by the Currency
Department, and the total of net coinage issued in individual years
differs somewhat from the total amount minted as stated in the Mint
Statistics.
(b) In one or two of the earlier years deduction is made on account of
an appreciable sum in rupees paid out to native states. This deduction
is in accordance with the practice of the reports of the Currency
Department.
(c) For Bahrain Islands, Ceylon, Arabia, Mauritius, and East African
Coast.
(d) Not allowing for natural wastage of rupees (see below).
This calculation makes no allowance for the general wastage through
loss and various causes, or for the steady drain of rupees across the
land frontiers. This last item is probably considerable and is not
adequately accounted for in the trade returns. The recorded statistics
of trade overland show a large annual balance against India, which
is probably met by an unrecorded export of gold, silver bullion, and
rupees. In the case of Nepal, for example, the recorded statistics
show a considerable net balance of imports of treasure _into_ India;
and in the case of Tibet, Afghanistan and, in fact, all the land
frontiers, the official statistics of the export of treasure do not
tally with what we know of the circulation of the rupee beyond the
frontiers. Taking all these causes of loss together, I do not think
we should overestimate the wastage of rupees from the circulation in
placing it between half a crore and a crore annually. For the twelve
years 1900 to 1912, therefore, I propose to make an aggregate deduction
of 941 lakhs.
This leaves us with a public circulation of 175 crores of rupees
(£116,500,000) on March 31, 1912, and a total public circulation,
including notes, of 228 crores[68] (£152,000,000), being an increase
since 1900 of 46 per cent in the rupee circulation and of 58 per cent
in the total circulation. If Mr. Atkinson’s estimate of the circulation
in 1900 is nearer the truth than Mr. Harrison’s, then the public rupee
circulation in 1912 may have been as much as 200 crores. In the course
of 1912 there was a good deal of fresh coinage, of which, at the time
of writing, accurate statistics are not yet available. For our present
purpose it will be quite sufficiently cautious to think of the public
rupee and note circulation together as amounting to not more than 250
crores.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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