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principal reason why so much land is waste, is, 

 that there is not Capital in the country to bring it 

 under cultivation. Money, then is scarce. In 

 India, therefore, land ought to be cheap, and money 

 dear. And so it is. But how cheap? How dear? 

 This I shall endeavour to show. 



"A lender of money" says MANTT "may take 

 in addition to his Capital the interest allowed by 

 VASISTHA, an eightieth part of a hundred by the 

 month," that is to say, one and a quarter per cent, 

 per mensem, or fifteen per cent, per annum. 



VYASA, again is more explicit. He says ft monthly 

 interest is declared to be an eightieth part of the 

 principle, if a pledge be given ; an eighth part, ii 

 added, if there be only a surety ;* and if there be 

 neither pledge nor surety, two in the hundred may 

 be taken" that is to say, one arid three fifths per 

 cent, per mensem, or nineteen and one fifth per cent, 

 per annum with a surety ; and twenty four per cent, 

 per annum without one. 



It will naturally be objected that the ancient 

 laws of ancient lawgivers have little to do with a 

 practical question in the middle of the nineteenth 

 century. True. I refer to ancient law, however, to 

 show what little progress India has made since the 



* Commentators are not happy in their explanation of this passage. 

 They make 'the eighth part added' to be a sixteenth ; but are only 

 able to do so, by assuming- a clerical error, which as it occurs in 

 many MSS. seems hardly adinissable. 



