Revisiting the Exchange Standard, 1898-1913

So far in this essay on Revisiting the Exchange Standard we have examined the views and pronouncements of the authorities in relation to facts, economic principles, and other reliable views. This has often yielded a more objective account. This part - on Prices, is different. There is the government resolution on the enquiry into prices, and the views of a government statistician and a few economists of some repute, down to 2001; two of them just did not confront the problem. They also stumbled, strangely, on the basic promises of the new standard, and on the unique structure and management of India's external accounts when this has long ceased to be a mystique. Coyajee wrote in 1930, evincing no regard for hard data. Keynes and Austin Chamberlain buried the issue of Prices, by their stony silence. We shall make some amends in Part IV, to view these matters analytically, and in a longer term perspective.