The period 1858-1947, which covers some of the most salient developments in the financial history of India, is still highly germane to many of the contemporary concerns of the sub-continent. The chapter reviews the main monetary and financial developments in India during our period under the following headings: monetary standard and policy, origins and development of commercial banking, evolution of central banking, non-institutional finance and cooperative credit. The origins of modern banking in India go back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with the establishment of the European Agency Houses of Bombay and Calcutta. These were primarily trading concerns that had branched out into banking as a sideline to facilitate the operations of their main business. In terms of the overall pattern of internal finance, the unorganized or non-institutional sector of the Indian banking and financial system may be described, conceptually, as a residual sector, usually in combination with trading and other activities.