Money of the Masses: Copper Coin Production and Circulation in India, 1500-1900

The volume shows how mid-sixteenth century India achieved deep monetization through widespread copper small-denomination production and everyday use.

Until very recently, the daily usage of coins by important parts of the population constituted an important indicator for the economic and social character of the society. Small denomination coins were produced and circulated primarily for the payment of wages, and of small purchases in market places and shops, where artisans and peasants offer their products. Frequent usage of small denomination coins thus allows us to characterise market societies as deeply monetised.

This volume demonstrates that from the mid-sixteenth century Indian society was deeply monetized and in this respect it was not different from other major civilizations across Eurasia from Western Europe via the West Asia to East Asia and back. In order to reach these conclusions, a detailed study of the production of small denominations (mainly copper) is offered here, which will interest coin collectors and numismatists; next comes the circulation of this small change, important for monetary historians; and finally, the daily use, which points to social relations, their possibilities and restrictions, which is important for social and general historians. In addition, selections from contemporary archival records have been included in this volume which may serve as source material for future research.

Table of Contents

• List of Illustrations xi
• List of Tables xix
• Introduction to the Series xxxiii
• Preface xxxv
• Acknowledgements xxxvii
• Abbreviations xli
• Introduction: Jan Lucassen 1
• PART I: STUDIES
• Theory, Historiography and Methods 293
• Sultanates and the Mughal Empire 463
• Successors: Princely and Colonial States 597
• PART II: RECORDS 753
• Bibliography 949
• Contributors to Part I (Studies) 991
• Index 995

Jan Lucassen (b. 1947), the editor of this volume, is a social and economic historian with research experience in Northwestern Europe and South Asia. His main fields of interest are the history of work, of labour migration and related to this monetary history. Sanjay Garg (b. 1965), is an historian of international repute and has edited the first two volumes of the present series: Monetary Foundations of the Raj (2019) and The Raj and the Rajas (2022).