32,708,771; being a total of 605,165,980. The following table gives the number of letters, newspapers, &c., carried, and the number of offices and receiving houses, together with the total revenue and expenditure (in rupees) of the Post Office in each of the five fiscal years 1899 to 1903 :

In the fiscal year ending March 1870, the mails travelled over 50,281 miles, of which total 40,586 miles was done by boats and 'runners,' 5,460 miles by carts and on horseback, and 4,235 miles by railways. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 1903, the mails travelled over 139,814 miles, of which total 107,470 miles was done by steamers, boats and 'runners,' 8,077 miles by carts and on horseback, and 24,267 miles by railways.

The following table shows the mileage of Government telegraph lines in India, and the number of messages sent, together with the charges on and receipts from all paid messages (including those sent by the Indo-European Telegraph and Persian Gulf Section) :

There were 2,051 telegraph offices in India on March 31, 1903.

Money and Credit.

The total value of the silver and copper coined in British India from 1835-36 to 1903-1904 inclusive has been Rs. 4,54,25,21,141, including Rs. 35, 24, 40, 293, the value of 155,322,241 British dollars, Rs. 3,40,58,805, the value of 15,009,891 Straits dollars, and Rs. 60,88,838 representing the value of cents and fractions thereof; the heaviest coinage in any one year being Rs. 21,02, 63,932, during 1903-1904. In the five financial years from 1899-1900 to 1903-04, the value (in rupees) of the money coined at the two Indian mints (Calcutta and Bombay) was as follows:

1 Includes Rs. 6,97,59,048 on account of the manufacture of British dollars in the Bombay Mint, in pursuance of the terms of an agreement made on the 14th December, 1894, between the Secretary of State for India and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China. The dollars were struck for use in Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements.

2 Includes Rs. 8,24,525 and Rs. 2,06,63,723 on account of the manufacture of British dollars in the Calcutta and Bombay Mints respectively.

3 Includes Rs. 34.34,698 and Rs. 5,82.81,530 on account of the manufacture of British dollars in the Calcutta and Bombay Mints respectively.

4 Includes Rs. 28,74,078 and Rs. 6,89,90,562 on account of the manufacture of British dollars in the Calcutta and Bombay Mints respectively.

5 Includes Rs. 89,75,722 on account of the manufacture of British dollars, and Rs. 3,40,58,805 on account of the manufacture of Straits dollars for the Government of the Straits Settlements. By an Order in Council of June 25, 1903, the coinage of these dollars, at either of the Indian Mints, was sanctioned. The agreement with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China for the coinage of British dollars terminated on December 10, 1903.

From 1835 to the 26th June, 1893, the standard of value was the silver rupee (containing 165 grains of fine silver and 15 grains of alloy), which was freely coined for the public. Down to 1891-92 gold was also coined in small quantities in the form of mohurs.

In 1892-93 the gold price of silver fell below 39 pence per ounce, and the exchange value of the rupee fell below 1s. 3d. In view of the increasing embarrassment of the finances, and the inconvenience and impediments to trade, caused by the fluctuations in the rate of exchange between India and England, a Committee, under the presidency of the Lord Chancellor, was appointed to consider what remedial measures should be adopted.

In accordance with the recommendation of this Committee, a Bill providing for the closing of the Indian Mints to the unrestricted coinage of silver for the public was introduced in the Legislative Council of the Governor General on June 26, 1893, and passed into law on the same day, as Act VIII. of 1893. Notifications were issued simultaneously providing (1) for the receipt of gold coin and gold bullion at the Mints in exchange for rupees at a ratio of 1s. 4d. per rupee; (2) for the receipt of sovereigns and half-sovereigns of current weight at treasuries, in payment of Government dues, at the rate of fifteen rupees for a sovereign and seven and a half rupees for a half-sovereign; and (3) for the issue of currency notes in Calcutta and Bombay in exchange for gold coin or gold bullion at the rate of one Government rupee for 1s. 4d. By a Notification of the 11th September, 1897, sovereigns and half-sovereigns of current weight are also received at the Reserve Treasuries, and rupees are issued in exchange at the rate of Rs. 15 for the sovereign.

Proposals were made by the Government of India in March, 1898, for further steps for the establishment of a gold standard for India on the basis

of 16d. the rupee. These proposals were referred by the Secretary of State for India to a committee in London. The committee recommended that sovereigns should be declared legal tender in India, and the Indian mints opened to the free coinage of gold. The proposals of the committee were adopted by the Government of India, who, by an Act (XXII. of 1899) passed on 15th of September, declared the sovereign legal tender.

On July 16, 1861, an Act was passed by the Government of India providing for the issue of a paper currency through a Government department of Public Issue, by means of promissory notes. Circles of issue were established from time to time, as found necessary, and the notes were made legal tender within the circle for which they were issued, and rendered payable at the place of issue, and also at the capital city of the Presidency. By an Act passed March 13, 1903, a currency note for Rs. 5 issued from any town in British India, except Burma, was made legal tender throughout British India, except Burma. Similarly, five-rupee notes issued from any town in Burma were declared legal tender throughout Burma. There are now eight circles of issue, each of which gives in exchange for money notes ranging from 5 rupees to 10,000 rupees in value.

In the year ending March 31, 1863, the total value of notes in circulation was 4,92,60,000 rupees. The following were the total values of notes in circulation on March 31 in each year, from 1899 to 1904 :

Nearly two-thirds of the total note circulation is in the currency circles of Calcutta and Bombay.

The following are the statistics of the Post Office Savings banks in India for the five years (1898-99 to 1902-1903) :

Native Depositors (in-
cluding Local Native
Institutions adminis-
tered by Natives)

Banks

Money, Weights, and Measures.

The money, weights, and measures of India, and the British equivalents, are as follows:

The rupee weighs one tola (a tola = 180 grains) 916 fine. The sum of 1,00,000 rupees is called a 'lac,' and of 1,00,00,000 a 'crore,' of rupees.

,, Guz of Bengal

An Act to provide for the ultimate adoption of a uniform system of weights and measures of capacity throughout British India was passed by the Governor-General of India in Council in 1871. The Act orders:

Art 2. 'The primary standard of weight shall be called a ser, and shall be a weight of metal in the possession of the Government of India, equal, when weighed in a vacuum, to the weight known in France as the kilogramme, = 2.205 lbs. avoirdupois.' Art. 3. The units of weight and measures of capacity shall be, for weights, the said ser; for measures of capacity, a measure containing one such ser of water at its maximum density, weighed in a vacuum.' 'Unless it be otherwise ordered, the subdivisions of all such weights and measures of capacity shall be expressed in decimal parts.' Act, however, has never been brought into operation.

This

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning India.

1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Administration: Reports on the various provinces. Annual.-Judicial and Administrative Statistics. Annual. Calcutta.

Agricultural Statistics of British India. Annual. Calcutta.

Army Indian Army List. Quarterly.-Wars on or beyond the borders of British India since 1849. London, 1901.

Famines Reports of Famine Commissions, 1885, 1887, and 1898.-Relief Operations, 1899-1900. Vol. I., British Districts; Vol. II., Native States.-Advances to Agriculturists at end of Famine. London, 1901.

Finance Accounts and Estimates, Explanatory Memorandum.

Annual.-Estimates

of Revenue and Expenditure. Annual.-Financial Statement of the Government of India with discussion in the Legislative Council. Annual.-Home Accounts. Annual.-Income and Expenditure under specified heads. Annual.-Report of Royal Commission on the Administration of the Expenditure of India. 4 vols. London, 1901.-Financial and Commercial Statistics of British India. Annual. Calcutta. Report of the Currency Committee of 1899. Calcutta, 1899.

Gazetteers: The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Edited by Sir W. Hunter. 14 vols. London, 1886-87.-Provincial and District Gazetteers. India List and India Office List. Annual.

Judicial: Judicial and Administrative Reports. Annual. General Acts of the Governor-General of India in Council. 6 vols. Mining Report on the Inspection of Mines in India. Population: Report on the Census of British India, 1901.

Annual.

General Report on the Census of India, 1901. London, 1904.

Calcutta. Unrepealed
Calcutta, 1898-99.
Calcutta.
Calcutta, 1902-1903.-

Proceedings, &c., 1859-98, List of in Record Departinent, India Office. London, 1900. Railways: Report on Railways. Annual. London. Sanitary Condition: Report on Sanitary Measures. Commission. 3 vols. of evidence, 1898-99. London, 1900.

Annual.

Surveys: Reports of the Trigonometrical Surveys of India up to 1897.

London.-Plague

Trade. Annual Statement of the Trade of British India with Foreign Countries, &c. Calcutta. Review of the Trade of India for five years. Annual. London.

Treaties: Collection of Treaties, &c., relating to India. Edited by Sir C. U. Aitchison. 11 vols. Calcutta, 1892.

General Statistics: Statistical Abstract for British India. Annual.-Statistical Atlas of India. Calcutta, 1895.-Statistical Abstract for the Colonies, &c. Annual. London. -Statistical Account of Bengal, by Sir W. W. Hunter. 20 vols. 1877.-Statistical Account of Assam. 2 vols. London, 1879.

2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Adams (A.), The Western Rajputana States. London, 1899.

Adye (Sir J.), Indian Frontier Policy. Historical Sketch. London, 1897.

Aubin, Les Anglais aux Indes et en Egypt. Paris, 1899.

Baden-Powell (B. H.), Land Systems of British India. 3 vols. Oxford, 1892. A Short Account of the Land Revenue and its Administration in British India. 8. Oxford, 1894.The Indian Village Community. London, 1899.

Balfour (Lady Betty), History of Lord Lytton's Indian Administration, 1876-80. London, 1899.

Balfour (Edward), The Cyclopædia of India. 3 vols. London, 1885.

Bird (G. W.), Wanderings in Burma. London, 1897.

Birdwood (Sir G.), The Industrial Arts of India. London, 1887.

Bonarjee (P. D.), Handbook of the Fighting Races of India. London, 1901.

Boulger (D. C.), India in the 19th Century. London, 1901.

Bose (P. N.), History of Hindu Civilisation during British Rule. 4 vols. London. 1896. [In Progress.]

Braddon (Sir E. N. C.), Thirty Years of Shikar. London, 1895.

Chesney (General Sir G.), indian Polity: a View of the System of Administration in India. 3rd ed. London, 1894.

2d. ed. London, 1904.

Chevrillon (A.), Romantic India. [Eng. Trans.] London, 1897.
Chirol (V.), The Middle Eastern Question. London, 1903.
Cotton (Sir H. J. S.), New India, or India in Transition.
Crooke (W.), The Tribes and Castes of the North-West Provinces and Oudh. 4 vols.
Calcutta, 1896. The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India. 2 vols.
1897. The North-West Provinces of India, their History, Ethnology, and Administration.
London, 1897.

Cumming (E. D.), With the Jungle Folk. Burmese Village Life. London, 1897.
Cunningham (Sir H. S.), British India and its Rulers. 8. London, 1881.
Curzon (Lord), Speeches on India, July-August, 1904. London, 1904.
Digby (W.), Prosperous British India. London, 1901.

London,

Dilke (Sir Charles Wentworth, Bart., M.P.), Greater Britain: a Record of Travel in English-speaking Countries in 1866 and 1867. New edit. S. London, 1885.

Dubois (J. A.), Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies. [Eng. Trans.] 2 vols. Oxford, 1897.

Duff (Grant), The History of the Mahrattas. London, 1826.

Durand (Col. A.), The Making of a Frontier. London, 1899.

Dutt (R. C.), Economic History of British India. London, 1902.-Open Letters on Famines and Land Assessments in India. London, 1900.-India in the Victorian Age. London, 1904.

Eckenstein (O.), The Karakorum and Kashmir. London, 1896.

Elliot (Sir H. M.), History of India as told by its own Historians. The Mussulman period. 8 vols. London, 1869-77.

Elphinstone (M.), History of India. London, 1866.

Ferrars (Max and Bertha), Burma. London, 1898.

Fontpertuis (Ad. Frout de), L'Inde britannique. 8.

Paris, 1878.

Forrest (G. W.), History of the Indian Mutiny. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1904.

Foucher (A.), Sur la Frontière Indo-Afghane. Paris, 1900.

Frazer (R. W.), British India in 'Story of the Nations' series. London, 1897.
Gehring (H.), Süd-Indien: Land und Volk der Tamulen.

Gütersloh. 1899.

Gough (Sir C.), and Innes (A. D.), The Sikhs and the Sikhs' War. London,

Griffin (Sir Lepel H.), The Rajas of the Punjab, being the History of the principal States in the Punjab. 2nd edit. S. London, 1872.

Hall (H. F.), The Soul of a People. [Buddhism in Burma.] London, 1902.
Hart (Mrs. E.), Picturesque Burma Past and Present. London, 1897.

Holdich (Sir T. H.), The Indian Borderland. London, 1901.-India. In Regions of the World Series. Oxford and London, 1904.

Holmes (T R.), History of the Indian Mutiny. 5th ed. London.

Hunter (Sir W. W.), The Indian Empire, its History, People, and Products. New edit. London, 1893.-Life of the Earl of Mayo. London, 1876.-Annals of Rural Bengal. London, 1897. (Editor) Rulers of India Series. London, 1890-99.-History of British India. Vol. I. and II. London, 1899-1901.-Brief History of the Indian Peoples. New ed. London, 1903.

Hutchinson (H. D.), The Campaign in Tirah, 1897-98. London, 1898.

Ilbert (Sir C. P.) The Government of India. Oxford, 1898.

Innes (McL.), The Sepoy Revolt. London, 1897.

Jacolliot (L.), Lois, prêtres, et castes dans l'Inde. 8. Paris, 1877.

Johnston (Sir J.), My Experiences in Manipur and the Naga Hills. London, 1896.

Kaye (Sir J. W.), The Administration of the East India Company: a History of Indian Progress. 8. London, 1853. And Malleson (Col. G. B.). History of the Indian Mutiny, 1857-58. New ed. 6 vols. London, 1897.