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or banker and grain dealer class, whose business it is 

 to supply the wants of others to live and grow fat 

 on the necessities of the remainder of the community. 

 For the rest in India, every one spends what he pro- 

 duces, or what is produced for him ; and as such a 

 state of thing-s is inconsistent with the existence of 

 Capital, that there is much wealth, but no Capital, 

 in India, is not at all surprising-. 



But in the midst of so much wealth how is it 

 that the great body of the people are so miserably 

 poor ? This would seem to be more difficult of ex- 

 planation, but it is not so. In India the system on 

 which society is regulated is peculiar. There is a 

 despotism, an Oriental despotism about it, which 

 percolates through all ranks of society from the 

 highest downward, which is not readily understood 

 in Europe. King's prey upon the whole community, 

 the Governors of provinces prey upon the people of 

 the provinces over which they rule ; the great land- 

 holders prey upon the landlords ; and the landlords 

 prey upon the r}^ots. King's having- a larg-e number 

 of persons to prey upon, are rich ; and in their per^ 

 sons is represented the greatest portion of the sur- 

 plus wealth of the Nation. Governors, petty Rajahs, 

 Nawabs, great landlords, &c., for the same reason 

 are rich and well to do. But the unfortunate ryots, 

 preyed upon by every one, have no one on whom in 

 turn to prey, and are therefore very poor, so poor 

 that they are left nothing 1 beyond the bare means of 

 subsistence, nothing' even to pay the cost of culti- 



