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The question is about the adoption of currency during imperialist rule.

  • Why did the British persist with the local currency, the rupee?
  • What impediments did the British face in implementing the pound-sterling system in India?
  • Were these impediments overcome in other colonies, and if yes, how?
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My guess would be for the same reason that introducing the Euro turned out to be not such a good idea. The gap between the British & Indian economy was pretty high during that time and the monetary policy required for either must have been pretty different. I'm not an economist though so this may not be correct. – Sid May 18 '12 at 18:16

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Just speculating here, but moving sterling from Britain to India would have been rather expensive back in the day. Also, minting sterling in India would have been risky to the currency back home since in those days currencies were based on the gold standard and Indian mints could easily have diluted the metals and thereby the home currency. also, it sounds like (I don't really know) India already had a currency that was easily interchangeable based on the Gold standard...unlike today's fiat floating currencies that always change.

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From the wikipedia

Following the Indian Mutiny in 1857, the British government took direct control of British India. Since 1851, gold sovereigns were produced en masse at the Royal Mint in Sydney, New South Wales. In an 1864 attempt to make the British gold sovereign the "imperial coin", the treasuries in Bombay and Calcutta were instructed to receive gold sovereigns; however, these gold sovereigns never left the vaults. As the British government gave up hope of replacing the rupee in India with the pound sterling, it realised for the same reason it could not replace the silver dollar in the Straits Settlements with the Indian rupee (as the British East India Company had desired).

There are some sources listed in the wikipedia article that I have cited above. If this is true then it seems that they did attempt but failed.

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It would be nice to know why the British gave up hope-or why they did not replace the silver dollar in the Straits Settlements. It is good to know that the British tried. – JoeHobbit May 30 '12 at 3:38

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