27 



of orders received from England for the remittance of an addi- 

 tional sum of a million sterling annually, accompanied by a 

 threat from the Court of Directors, that unless this were done 

 they would take the question of reducing the establishments in 

 their o-^ti hands. When Sir Thomas Munro became Governor 

 of Madras in 1S22, he sanctioned the proposals made by him- 

 seK for the reduction of assessment in the Ceded districts and 

 granted alleviations in other districts also. These measures, 

 though they averted the further decline of the coLintry, had, 

 owing to adverse cii'cumstances, little effect in improving the 

 condition of the ryots. Within 24 years there were no less 

 than four famines, viz., those of 1799, of 1804-7, of 1811-12 

 and of 1Sj:4. Nine years later in 1833-34 occurred the famine 

 known as the Guntdr famine, which, though confined to a small 

 area, was more destructive in its effects than that of 1870-78. 

 The mortality and suffering ^* caused by it were terrible. In 

 the Guntiir portion of the Kistna district from one-third to half 

 of the whole population perished. 



16. From 1834 down to 1854 there was no famine of a 



Agricultural depres- severe type, though the country suffered 



sion between 1834 to from a serics of unfavorable seasons. 



1854 and its causes. m „ • li. i j 



inere was a severe agruiultui'al depression 

 on account of the low prices which then ruled of agricultural 

 produce. This was due to causes which were in operation 

 throughout India and were not merely confined to this Presi- 

 dency. Owing to the slow development of export trade and 

 the remittance of considerable amount of specie to England, 

 the currency of the country had become quite insufficient for 

 its requirements, under the altered conditions brought about 

 by English rule, viz., the development of internal traffic conse- 

 quent on a quarter of a century of peace and the substitution 

 of cash payments for payments in kind both in the receipt 

 of taxes and the disbursements of Government. On this 

 subject Mr. Pedder writes : " India does not produce the 

 precious metals and can obtain her currency only in exchange 

 for exports. Before the introduction of British rule there 

 was comparatively little trade ; much of what trade there was 

 was carried on by barter, and a considerable portion of the 

 receipts and disbursements of Government was in kind, not in 



'* Captain (afterwards Colonel) Walter Campbell, who was an ej^e^witness, describes the 

 horrors of the famine at .Masulipatam in the c ntre of the Kistna delta. He states : " The 

 description in ' the siege of Corinth ' of dogs gn .wing human skulls is mild as compared 

 with the scenes of horror we are daily forced to witness in our morning and evening 

 rides. . . . It is dreadful to see what revolting food human beings may be driven to 

 partake of. Dead dogs and horses are greedily devoured by these starving wretches ; and 

 the other day an unfortunate donkey having strayed from the fort, th> y fell upon him 

 like a pack of, wolves, tore him limb from limb a,Q(l devoured him on the spot." 



