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Abstract:
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) started working for the India Office in 1906, when the British Empire's administration was at the height of its power and influence. After working for the Military Department of the India Office, Keynes was transferred in March 1907 to the Department of Revenue, Statistics and Trade. He wrote the Indian Currency and Finance (ICF) four years after leaving the civil service in 1908 to lecture on Indian monetary problems at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge (in 1910-1911). ICF was Keynes's first book. Lionel Abrahams and Neville Keynes discussed and helped to improve the book's first drafts, which were made up of chapters that Keynes had originally planned to include in a larger and more comprehensive volume on the India System. After completing ICF, Keynes joined the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance chaired by Austen Chamberlain, which was a major opportunity for him to influence policy. Even though it was very critical of Great Britain's official doctrine, ICF was widely accepted. This article analyses Keynes's proposals for Indian currency reform as a tribute to the centenary of its publication.
'A preference for a tangible gold currency is no longer more than a relic of a time when governments were less trustworthy in these matters than they are now.'(Keynes 1971 [1913]: 51)
I Introduction
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) started working for the India Office in 1906, when the British Empire's administration was at the height of its power and influence.1 After working for the India Office's Military Department, Keynes was transferred in March 1907 to the Department of Revenue, Statistics and Trade. He wrote Indian Currency and Finance (ICF) four years after leaving the civil service in 1908 in which time he gave lectures on Indian monetary problems at the London School of Economics and at the University of Cambridge (1910-1911). Based on his lectures Keynes proposed a book on this topic to Macmillan publishers in August 1910. However, work on it was interrupted somewhat when, in January 1912, he was elected editor of the Economic Journal after Edgeworth (who was editor after Neville Keynes) declined to continue the job. It may be said this marks the beginning of Keynes's recognition as an economist.