The financial history of India from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the beginning of World War I provides textbook paradigms and illustrations of the hazards of depreciating currency, and the contrasting advantages of a stable international exchange mechanism. The first study toexamine the central role played by the Presidency banks in the Indian money market during this period, this work provides an analysis of the exchange banks and the international payment mechanisms prevailing at the time. Bagchi challenges conventional notions of the causes and consequences of adepreciating rupee as well as ideas on the advantage of a gold exchange standard.