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XII - The Monetary System and Prices

from PART II - c. 1500–1750

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Irfan Habib
Edited by
Tapan Raychaudhuri  and
Irfan Habib
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Summary

MONEY

The Mughal empire could well boast of one of the finest coined currencies in the contemporary world, a tri-metallic currency of great uniformity and purity, with the silver rupee as the basic coin.

Until the reign of Sher Shāh (1540–5), the principal coin in circulation in northern India was the billon sikandarī, a copper coin with a small silver alloy, which had developed out of the progressive debasement of the silver tanka of the Delhi sultans. The silver tanka had other descendants also, coins of more or less coarse silver, such as the muzaffarīs of Mālwa and the mahmūdīs of Gujarat. The Deccan sultanates also coined billon tankas. The coinage of the Vijayanagara empire was, on the other hand, based on the hūn or ‘pagoda’, a gold coin. This continued to be coined by the principalities of southern India and the Qutbshāhī kingdom of Golkonda even after the disintegration of the Vijayanagara empire.

Sher Shāh occupies an important place in the history of Indian coinage, because of his attempt at establishing a coinage untainted by any element of debasement. This was exemplified by his coining of the silver rūpaya, or rupee, together with coins of pure gold and copper. But it was really under Akbar that the system was firmly established.

The basic coin, the rūpaya, or rupee, weighed 178 grains troy in which the alloy was never allowed to rise above 4 per cent. Akbar's successors continued mintage of this coin, with certain short-lived additional issues of heavier rupees by Jahāngīr.)

Keywords

copper pricesagrarian economycommoditiescurrency-in-circulationMughal coinagenorthern Indialand revenuesecular price changessilver tankagold coin
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of India , pp. 360 - 381
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1982

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