294 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rights in the nature of land tenures are recognized in the as- 

 sessments, and heed is also paid to the character of the lands and 

 the purposes to which they are devoted. No increase of rent is 

 ever allowed upon improvements made by the tenant himself, or 

 upon improvements arising from the expenditure of public money ; 

 so that, in the opinion of those who have given personal attention 

 and study to this subject, the English officials have finally estab- 

 lished a land revenue system in India on a just basis. 



The expense of collecting the land tax is heavy. In the so- 

 called " village assessments " the collection is made by the local 

 authorities. In other cases the large proprietors and notables pay 

 the Government levies and recoup themselves by including their 

 payments in the rents charged to their subtenants — the ryots, or 

 peasantry. While the revenues from this source are very reliable, 

 they are not regarded as capable of much further expansion. The 

 gross receipts — imperial, provincial, and local — from the annual 

 rental of tax on land in all India was ofiicially returned for 1893- 

 '94 at 25,589,600 Rx. (or about $123,000,000), representing an aver- 

 age rent or tax of $1.53 per acre. About nine tenths of the entire 

 population of India belong to the agricultural class. 



Second in order of importance of the sources of Indian revenue 

 is the tax on salt, which, since its discontinuance in France in 

 1789, has ceased to be an excise or internal tax in European 

 countries, with the exception of Italy, and which finds its war- 

 rant and justification at the present time in India in the fact, 

 that apart from the land tax there is no other method so practi- 

 cal and economic of compelling the masses of its people to 

 directly contribute anything for the support of the Government, 

 inasmuch as the consumption of salt is a necessity for every 

 individual. A very large proportion of the salt required for In- 

 dian consumption is imported — chiefly from England — ^and the 

 total amount on which taxes are collected is about 500,000 tons, 

 or 3,000,000 barrels. The rate of tax is two and a half silver 

 rupees (nominally $1.00) per muund of 82'28 pounds. Previous 

 to 1879-'80 the Government maintained, at great expense and 

 popular annoyance, a customs line twenty-five hundred miles 

 in length, to keep salt produced in the states under native rule 

 from entering into British territory without the payment of a 

 heavy duty. This barbarous system, necessitating the constant 

 employment of a large force of native constables, known as chu- 

 prassies, invested with inquisitorial powers, was abolished at 

 the time above named, by entering into treaties with the native 

 states possessing salt sources, in virtue of which British officials 

 are permitted to supervise their salt works and tax their product 

 before it left them. But this could be only accomplished by pay- 

 ing the states concerned a satisfactory compensation for this con- 



