RELIEF OF INDEBTED AOHICl'LTUKISTS. 145 



upon which to borrow and repay. But we went further than this. 

 Under the Native government a cultivator could not, according to 

 custom, be ejected as long as he paid the revenue demand; but that 

 demand was so high that his right of occupancy was worth little or 

 nothing and was, besides, mostly not recognized as saleable. The land 

 was not his to sell, being deemed the property of the State. Under our 

 settlement, however, ' this right of conditional occupancy ' (to quote 

 Bombay Act 1 of 1865) 'is declared to be a saleable and transferable 

 property/ Though the land is still termed " Government land," 

 the occupant has acquired a tenant-right far wider than that of 

 Ireland, and has virtually become proprietor, while the Government 

 retains only a rent charge, variable once in thirty years, within 

 certain prescribed limits. The right of property thus granted 

 acquired simultaneously a considerable value through the reduction 

 of the revenue demand and its invariability for thirty years. The 

 gift, intended to enrich the ryot, increased his credit along with 

 his means, thus exposing him to the loss, not only of the extra share 

 of net produce bestowed, but of the land from which a livelihood had 

 hitherto been secure. 



Fast upon these additions to solvency and credit came days of 

 brilliant but ephemeral prosperity. Commencing with 1850, railways, 

 roads, bridges and other public works poured millions into labourers' 

 hands, while a series of good seasons gave the best encouragement 

 to agriculture, and brought almost every available acre under the 

 plough. Then came the American war, raising to almost fabulous 

 rates the prices of cotton and other produce. These circumstances 

 had a double effect : many ryots paid off, or greatly reduced 

 their debts : many more, both of these and others, increased their 

 expenses, and some even borrowed largely upon the strength of 

 increased incomes which they supposed would last for ever : all 

 learned a higher standard of comfort and new wants, which they 

 could not relinquish with readiness equal to the subsequent 

 rapid contraction of their means. A further expansion of the 

 ryot's credit was induced by greater facility in obtaining loans, 

 owing to two reasons. The arming of the money-lender, to which I 

 shall presently allude, rendered frauds and legal recovery of advances 

 easier. Also, the general prosperity increased the capital of money- 

 lenders for investment and the number of persons competing in the 

 business. Money was lent recklessly, on unsound credit ; money 



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