Indian Currency and Finance.

London, Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1913. . First edition; 8vo ( 22.5 x 14.5 cm); bookplate to front pastedown, library stamp and inscription in pen to front free endpaper, folding chart; publisher's brown cloth, gilt spine, spine caps slightly bumped; viii, 263, [1]pp.
The Royal Statistical Society's copy of Keynes' first published book, Indian Currency and Finance. Keynes himself was a long-term member of the Society, and served on its council for three periods between 1915 and 1919, 1933 and 1937 and 1941 to 1945.

The book was the culmination of Keynes' experience working as an administrative official at the India Office between 1906 and 1908, and of a series of lectures he gave on Indian monetary problems at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge in the two years prior to publication. In it, Keynes argues for the continuance of the Indian gold exchange standard over the adoption of a full gold standard, such as in place in Britain, recognising the virtue of a system under which neither a gold currency nor dependance on a substantial holding of gold reserves was necessary to guard against external liabilities. Although critical of official government policy, the book was well received, and Keynes was appointed to Royal Commission to investigate the matter further.