.'J9 



trammels, while at the same time affording them every facility 

 by the improvement of communications to take the produce to 

 the best markets. Owing to the operation of the economic 

 causes and the administrative improvements above referred to, 

 •both cultivation and trade increased enormously and the agri- 

 cultural and trading classes enjoyed great prosperity. The 

 ryots in the single district of Bellary made 1^ million sterling 

 by the sale of cotton in the 3 years of the American war. 

 There was a considerable improvement in the condition of non- 

 agricultural labourers also, as, owing to the construction of 

 several railways and other public works, the demand for labour 

 was great and continuous, and the rise in wages kept pace with 

 the rise in the price of food-grains, the old system of impress- 

 ment of labour at discretionary wages having, as already stated, 

 been swept away. The Board of Ee venue, Madras, instituted 

 careful inquiries in 1863 regarding the rates of wages prevailing 

 in the several districts in their relation to the prices of food- 

 grains. The results were as follows. Agricultural labourers 

 continued to be paid generally in kind and, therefore, the 

 increase in the price of food did not materially affect their con- 

 dition. Payment in moneij was very rare, and, where it ob- 

 tained, the rates of hire had more than doubled. Grain wages 

 also had in some instances risen, though not in the same ratio 

 as the payment in money. In consequence of the greater 

 demand for labour, the condition of the agricultural labourers 

 had not deteriorated, but on the contrary had generally im- 

 proved ; and this was no less the case with other classes of 

 labourers, whose wages had fully kept pace with the enhanced 

 price of food, being in some cases doubled and trebled. A 

 carpenter who would have received 4 annas before the rise of 

 prices would not take less than 6 or 8 annas, while the hii-e of 

 the common cooly had risen from 2 or 3 annas to 4 annas a day. 

 The Board considered that this state of things was a satisfactory 

 indication of the generally improved circumstances of the people. 

 The only class which suffered by the high prices was the lower 

 Gfovernment officials who, notwithstanding the recent enhance- 

 ment of their salaries, were in no case in a better, generally 

 in a considerably worse, position than before. Mr. Dalyell, 

 writing in 1866, estimated that the ryot was in twice as good a 

 position as he was in 1854. His remarks on the condition of 

 the general mass of the population have been extracted in the 

 appendix E, section IV. 



20. There was a drought again in 1865 and 1866 all along 



Tb reacti n ^^ ^^^^ Coast of the Presidency to the 



north of Madras and extending as far inland 



as the Mysore plateau, the area affected being about 43,000 



