Page:A History of the Indian Medical Service, 1600-1913 Vol 1.djvu/19

PREFACE

xiii in weight and in value ; the Surat, Bombay, Farakhabad, Benares, Arcot, Sonat, and sikka rupees ; and besides all these the chalani or current rupee, in which the Company's accounts were kept. The sikka rupee was the highest in value, ii6 chalani rupees equalling lOO sikkas. Hence the well-known but unfounded story that, when Francis was condemned to pay 50,000 rupees damages to Grand, Mr. Justice Hyde interrupted the Chief Justice with the remark, " Sikkas, Brother Impey, sikkas." The modem rupee is the exact equivalent in weight and purity of the Farak- habad rupee;

The gold mohur was worth sixteen rupees. The term is still used in common parlance as equivalent to sixteen rupees, in speaking of a bet, a fee, etc., as the term guinea is used in England ; though an actual gold mohur is now worth more than double that amount. The first British coins, bearing the British Sovereign's head, from a rupee downwards, were issued in the reign of William IV. No gold mohur bearing the British Sovereign's head has ever been put into circulation, though such a coin, with the Queen's head, was minted as an essay in 1881.

The value of the rupee has varied greatly from time to time. An entry in the Court Minutes of the E.I. Co., on 28th April, 1640 {Calendar of Court Minutes, 1640-43, p. 36), speaks of the rupee as worth 5s. or 65. M., and fixes on the higher rate. This greatly enhanced value, however, appears to include the allowance of a large profit on money invested.

The Calcutta Pub. Cons, of 31st Dec, 1722, mention bills given to Surman at 2s. (^d. the rupee. For about a century the value of the rupee stood at about half a crown, and for another half century at about two shillings. A Bengal G.O. of 21st Nov., 1845, values the rupee at 2s. old. But a list of subscribers to the Company's bonded debt, entered in the Bombay Cons, of 14th Sept., 1786, gives the amounts held by each subscriber both in rupees and in sterling, and shows the rupee at rather less than two shillings.

In the 'seventies of last century, after the demonetisation of silver by Germany, the value of the rupee rapidly fell. In 1881 It was worth is. U. It gradually sank, until in 1890 it was