IMMOBILITY OF GRAIN 



265 



fertile tracts of Malwah to emigrate to, and in the 

 adjacent States of Bhopal and Saugor grain is 

 abundant.' 



The reason why public and private charity both 

 failed to alleviate the distress to any considerable 

 degree was that it was impossible to increase the 

 stores of gram in'the country. The well-to-do, by 

 distributing some of their wealth, made it possible for 

 the poor to buy a little grain at the greatly enhanced 

 prices prevailing, but they could not by importation 

 reduce the price in such a manner as to bring food 

 within the reach of the poor. This is strikingly illus- 

 trated by a reflection of the Commissioner of Agra. 

 In his report upon his tour through his division at the 

 beginning of 1838, he says: 'Had a good and open 

 communication existed for wheeled carriages between 

 Agra and Malwah, the grain which is abundant there, 

 and is selling at 50, and even 60, seers the rupee, might 

 have reached its market.' The price of grain at Agra 

 in this year was 11 to 12 seers the rupee. The highest 

 prices recorded during the famine were : 



Of the mortality during the famine we have no 

 trustworthy statistics. Colonel Baird Smith estimated 

 that the total population affected by the famine of 

 1837-38 must have been between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000, 

 and that the population within which the intensity of 

 suffering was greatest, and the mortality highest, must 



