10 APPtJNDlX II. 



two or three times during the first 20 years of the century the 

 subsequently heavy fall of prices, and the consequently oppressive 

 weight of the old Mahratta rate of assessment which was at first 

 continued by the Government of the day, all these had produced an 

 amount of poverty and ruin which the Settlement officer writing in 

 1833 found it impossible to describe. 



12. The Government of that day, however, made strenuous 

 efforts to better this state of things. They reduced the assessment 

 from an average rate of 13i annas to 7 annas, they gave the 

 cultivators for the first time fixity of tenure, and they abolished 

 extra cesses. 



13. A Resolution of the Government of Bombay, dated the 

 30th August 1875, describes the satisfactory results of this new 

 settlement of the land : " In 1838 more than 50 per cent, of arable 

 land was waste ; in 1871 only one per cent. Population increased, 

 during the term of the settlement, 39 i per cent. ; agricultural cattle 

 19 per cent. ; ploughs 22i per cent. ; carts 270 per cent. ; and wells 

 40 per cent. Government land was unsaleable in 1838 ; during the 

 last five years of the settlement, examination of the registration records 

 showed that it fetched from 10 to 52 times its assessment. Thirty 

 years ago there were no made roads, and communication was costly 

 and difficult j the taluka is now traversed by the railway and by 

 several excellent roads, and the increase in the number of carts 

 indicates the extent to which the people avail themselves of the 

 facilities of communication with markets." 



14. Satisfactory as this picture of progress is (and similar ones 

 may be produced from all parts of India), there is undeniable evidence 

 in the report before me that the very improvements introduced under 

 our rule, such as fixity of tenure and lowering of the assessments, have 

 been the principal causes of the great destitution which the 

 Commissioners found to exist. 



15. The saleable value of the land greatly increased the credit of 

 the ryot, and encouraged beyond measure the national habit of 

 borrowing, which I have before observed on. High prices led to 

 extended cultivation, to more expensive modes of living, to larger 

 outlay on the great stimulant to Hindu expenditure, marriage 

 ceremonies. Recourse to the money-lender became then more frequent 

 than before and the class of money-lenders competing for custom 

 increased in most undue proportions, The first fall in prices, and the 



