36 



mucli of the wages entered in the accounts as having been paid 

 was never really received by the labourers, who submitted to 

 various deductions, which had become customary, in favour of 

 officers employed on or about the work and in the disbursement 

 of the money. 



Section lY .-^Narrative of the principal facts hearing on the 

 condition of the Agricultural classes from the middle of the 

 present century to the present time. 



19. There was a famine in 1864, but it was restricted in its 



effects to the district of Bellary and was not 



period of agricultural of loug duration ; the chief losses were in 



depression and the com- cattle, four-fifths of which are stated to have 



mencement oi a period -,■ t ^^^^ -li ii • p 



of prosperity and in- died. Ihc agricultaral depression from 

 ternai reforms. which the couutry was Suffering came to an 



end about this time, and a period of great prosperity for the 

 agricultural classes commenced. For this there were several 

 causes. The discovery of gold mines in Australia and Cali- 

 fornia had increased the demand for Indian commodities in 

 European countries whose stocks of gold had been enlarged, 

 and this movement was accelerated by the Crimean war which 

 stimulated exports of jute and oil-seeds, and by the cotton 

 famine in England caused by the American war, which in- 

 creased the demand for Indian cotton enormously. The mer- 

 chandise exported from India, which amounted to only 13^ 

 millions sterling in 1840-41, rose to 68 millions in 1864-65. 

 The result was a great influx of silver into India which she was 

 able to obtain on advantageous terms in exchange for her com- 

 modities, as the cheap new gold had, to a considerable extent, 

 taken the place of silver in European countries and made the 

 latter metal available for export to this country. Further, 

 about this time loans on a large scale were raised in England 

 for the construction of public works. For railways alone, 90 

 millions were raised, and it is calculated that more than half 

 this sum was remitted to India for payment of wages to men 

 employed on the works. The influx of all this money enabled 

 India to replenish her insufficient currency and the prices of 

 Indian produce rose to nearly three times of what they were in 

 the years immediately preceding 1850. This period was also 

 remarkable for the great reforms carried out in the internal 

 administration of the country, which gave a great impetus to the 

 extension of cultivation and trade. The land assessments were 

 reduced wherever they were found to be heavy, notably in the 

 Bellary, North Arcot, South Arcot, Trichinopoly and E^irnool 

 Districts. The effects of these reductions under the stimulus of 



