57 



because the pressure of population has not enhanced the prices 

 of agricultural produce to such an extent as to make intensive 

 cultivation ^'' necessary or profitable. 



. 27. Prices of commodities appear to have varied enormously 

 in different parts of the country in previ- 

 ous centuries owing to the difficulty of com- 

 munication and general insecurity ; they were comparatively 

 high in such districts as Malabar and South Canara which ex- 

 ported spices much in demand in Europe, receiving in return 

 gold and silver. In the districts in the interior, prices were 

 exceedingly low. We find, for instance, that the commutation 

 rate adopted by Hari Har Roy, the Yijianagar Sovereign, 

 for the settlement of land revenue in Canara in the middle 

 of the l4th century was 3 kattis for 1 ghetti pagoda, or 30 

 seers of 80 tolas of rice per rupee, while the present price is 15 

 seers per rupee. Buchanan states that in the 15th century the 

 price adopted for fixing the tax on cocoanut plantations was 6 

 pagodas or 24 rupees per 1,000 cocoanuts. The price is not 

 much higher at present. In the Eamnad country on the other 

 hand, it will be seen from the letter of the Jesuit Missionary 

 already quoted that in 1713, 8 markals of excellent husked 

 rice could be purchased for 1 fanam, and Mr. ]N^elson, the 

 compiler of the Madura District Maniml^ says that the rate is 

 equivalent to 96 lb. for 2jJ., or 512 seers of 80 tolas for 1 

 rupee, which is nearly one-twenty-third of the present price. 

 In the Chingleput district, it appears that in 1733 paddy was 

 sold at 25 pagodas per garce, which is about one-half of the 

 present price. Twenty years previously, however, it would 

 seem that this would have been reckoned a famine price. The 

 price of paddy in the last quarter of the last century in the 

 Ganjam district appears to have averaged %d. per cwt., or 168 

 seers of 80 tolas per rupee or about one-sixth of the present 



32 The English example is very instructive. The average price of wheat in the 

 beginning of the 15th centary was only 6*. a quarter and in particular years it went 

 down as low as Is. Id. Between 1459 and 1560, the average price rose to 9s. Id. in 

 consequence mainly of the debasement of the currency. From 1561 to 1601 the average 

 price was 47s. ^d. In the 17th and 18th centuries prices were at the same level. In the 

 first half of the present century the average price was 60s. The greatest improvements 

 in agriculture were effected in the 17th and 18th centuries and the first half of the 19th 

 century. The price, however, has since under the stress of foreign competition gone 

 down as low as 30s. a quarter. The consequence is that high cultivation does not pay in 

 England. "The soil is weakly farmed, undermanned, and understocked, partly because 

 capital has dwindled, partly because farmers are compelled to realize something, even if 

 the sales are premature. Land is going back ; it is falling out of condition, if not out of 

 cultivation, and farmers are too poor, too weak and dispirited to restore or maintain it. 

 Its produce per acre is diminishing and the number of sheep has decreased by more than 

 two millions since 1875. High farming at present prices appears waste of money ; 

 agricultvfe cannot hold its own by intension against extension. The progress of centuries 

 seems thrown away ; the instrument becomes useless just when it is perfected and able 

 to double the "existing produce." — Prothero's Pioneers and Progress of English Farming, 



8 



