India Office Records: Financial Department Records

This Fonds comprises the records of the main departments and committees of the home government which were primarily concerned with financial subjects, other than the Accountant General's Department (IOR/L/AG). Before the establishment of the India Office in 1858, the records are very mixed in origin, including copies of financial correspondence with India kept in several offices, notably the Accounts (or Finance Department) of the Board of Control (1807-58), as well as in the departments of the Auditor, Financial Secretary and Secretary at East India House. The records of the Finance and Home Committee of the Court of Directors also form part of the pre-1858 accumulations. From 1858 IOR/L/F is more uniform, being mostly made up of the records of the India Office Finance Department continuing down to 1947 and including (from 1921) the files of the two branches established within it - Finance and Currency, and Treasury Control- as well as the deposited papers of several committees of enquiry. For the principal subjects represented in IOR/L/F, see Martin Moir 'A General Guide to the India Office Records' (London 1988) pp.171-172.

• Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India
• East India Company
• India Office

Available for research unless otherwise stated

The Financial Department came into being as one of the departments of the new India Office, formed in 1858 by the Government of India Act. Initially the responsibility of the Under Secretary of State, it continued the governmental functions of the Accounts (later Accounts and Finance) Department of the Board of Control. The Financial Department also took over responsibility for the financial functions of the East India Company, chiefly those exercised by the Finance and Home Committee, and the operations of the Accountant General's, Auditor's, and other financial offices supervised by the Financial Secretary's Department (later Secretary's Department) of the Company. Before 1835 the Company's financial operations had been controlled by separate committees of the Court Directors (Accounts, Buying, Treasury, and Warehouses), and in specific offices (Accountant General, Auditor, Bullion Office, Treasurer). In March 1835, the Financial Secretary's Department was formed by the amalgamation of various offices including those of the Auditor, Accountant General, Treasury, Home Auditor, Buying and Warehouses, and Transfer Accountant. From March 1836, the Financial Secretary's Department was merged with the Secretary's Department under the overall direction of the Secretary (although the then Financial Secretary was the first appointment as Secretary in charge of the consolidated Department). The newly extended Secretary's Department was divided into four main branches: Minuting and Correspondence, Accounts, Pay, and Audit, with each branch headed by an Assistant to the Secretary. Two more branches were formed later: Marine in 1837, Will and Bond in 1852. On the abolition of the Marine Department in April 1867, marine pensions and miscellaneous work was passed to the Financial Department. In January 1872, the Accountant General's office became the Accounts Branch of the Financial Department, but in February 1879 the Accounts Branch was re-constituted as a separate Accountant General's Department. Post Office matters were dealt with by the Financial Department from September 1879 until April 1914 when postal work was transferred to the Public Works Department, (except for financial adjustments with the General Post Office). A second Secretary was appointed to the Financial Department in 1914 to take charge of Treasury Control questions. The other Secretary managed exchange, currency and taxation matters, meaning the Department was in effect split into two branches: (a) Treasury Control and (b) Finance and Currency. On the abolition of the Public Works Department in October 1926, the Finance Department took up general policy questions concerning railways. In assuming the East India Company's financial functions in 1858, the India Office received the Company's financial records to add to those of the Board of Control Accounts (or Finance) Department. An exercise of rationalisation in the 1860s and 1870s of parallel series of Company and Board records resulted in the discarding of duplicate correspondence series and the formation of the archive series as they now stand as the body of precedent for the Financial Department's operations. The records of the subordinate Marine Department and Accountant General's Department continued to be kept separately.