MEANS OF TRANSPORT 173 



the villager with grain to dispose of carried it in his 

 cart to the neighbouring town or central mart, where 

 even before the construction of railways he could get 

 a better price for his produce than in his own village. 

 The metalled road relieved the cultivator from his 

 absolute dependence upon the local grain-dealer ; the 

 same relief has been afforded on a larger scale by the 

 railways, which have the effect of making the whole of 

 Northern India one market for grain. The cultivator's 

 produce has now a definite and, within certain limits, 

 a steady value. The reduction in the cost of carriage 

 has further enabled him to retain for himself a larger 

 proportion than before of the price at which grain 

 sells in the towns and central marts ; this is an 

 increase in the value of his produce which is quite 

 independent of the rise in price or value of grain in 

 terms of silver. The cultivator in the past probably 

 imported next to nothing from the world outside his 

 village, and to this day he imports very little ; but in 

 respect of what he does import he has been a gainer 

 by the reduction in the cost of carriage. He pays less 

 in actual cost (that is, in the articles he gives in ex- 

 change) for his copper and iron plates, foreign cloth, 

 lamps, and kerosine oil than he did, or would have 

 done, in the first half of the nineteenth century. But 

 though the improvement in the means of transport 

 has been a great stimulus to the development of 

 Indian agriculture, it is not necessary to make more 

 than this passing reference to it, because the construc- 

 tion of roads and railways falls within the ordinary 

 development of the country under a civilized govern- 

 ment, and roads and railways assist the production of 

 wealth in many other forms than agriculture. 



