58 



price. Comparatively high prices appear to have ruled at this 

 time in the Southern districts owing to the devastating wars 

 and famines from which they suffered. Since the beginning of 

 the century we have continuous records of the prices of food- 

 grains. The old prices are, strictly speaking, not comparable 

 with recent prices on account of the variety of the measures in 

 terms of which the prices were quoted in the old days, and the 

 uncertainty as to their contents, but they nevertheless give a 

 fairly correct general idea of the changes that have occurred. 

 In the appendix V(C) I have given tables showing the average 

 prices of the four principal food- grains for quinquennial 

 periods, leaving out of account famine years. From these 

 tables it will be seen that prices were at their lowest level for 

 some years before 1850, in consequence of the insufficiency of the 

 currency to meet the requirements of the country. Represent- 

 ing the avei-age prices of the food-grains in the five years 

 ending 1853 by 100, the average prices at the quinquennial 

 periods referred to will be indicated by the numbers shown in 

 the subjoined table : — 



The above table clearly brings out the following conclusions. 

 Firsts from about 1828 to 1853, or for a period of nearly 25 

 years, the prices rapidly declined till they reached a level which 

 was oue-fourth^'^ less than the prices in the early years of the 

 century on which the land settlements were based. The result 

 was the acute agricultural depression already described and the 

 collapse of the settlements ; secondly^ prices rose rapidly after 

 1853 till they reached their culmination in the five years 

 ending 1865, when they were two-and-a-half times what they 

 were prior to 1853 and twice as high as in the early years of 



3* As the figures given in the table represent averages of prices differing widely and 

 rel:iting to largo tracts of country, they must be taken as indicating the direction of the 

 movemt^nt of prices and not as a strict moafsute of their rise or fall. I have endeavoured 

 to obtain information regarding the course of prices from the accounts kept tby land- 

 holders and merchants. The results which are given in the appendix V.-C. (e) to (t) are 

 confirinatory of the inferences derivable from the table given here. ' 



