117 



Since 1820, the consumption of salt cannot be said to 

 have increased as much as might be expected from the 

 increase of population, the suppression of illicit manufacture 

 and smuggling and the development of communications, 

 though, of course, owing to the area supplied with Madras 

 salt, which competes with that of Bombay, having under the 

 ordinary conditions of trade changed from time to time, the 

 figures above given for different years will have to be cor- 

 rected to admit of their being compared with one another. 

 The development of railways and the fall in the purchasing 

 power of money have also doubtless made the tax less burden- 

 some in proportion to the increase in the money rates of duty 

 than it would otherwise have been in the inland districts. 

 Thus in 1814, when the monopoly price of salt at the coast 

 was 14 annas a maund, Madras sea salt was sold in Bellary 

 at Rs. 2-8-0 per maund ; and in 1850 when the Government 

 price was Re. 1, the price in Bellary was a little less than 

 Rs. 2-8-0. The prices in the Cuddapah, Bellary, Kurnool, 

 Coimbatore and Salem districts in 1862, 1873 and 1883 when 

 the monopoly prices at the factories were Rs. 1-8-0, Rs. 2, 

 and Rs. 2-3-0, compare as follows : 



There can, however, be little doubt that the salt tax 

 presses with severity on the poorer classes, especially on the 

 sea coast, where the duty has been enhanced in recent years, 

 and large preventive establishments have at the same time 

 been employed to put down illicit manufacture and smuggling* 

 There has been much discussion as regards the soundness of 

 the policy of taxing a necessary of life like salt. The Duke 

 of Argyle, the Secretary of State for India, said in 1869 : 

 "On all grounds of general principle, salt is a perfectly 

 legitimate subject of taxation. It is impossible to reach the 

 masses of the people by direct taxes ; if they are to contribute 

 at all to the expenditure of the State, it must be through 

 taxes levied upon some articles of universal consumption. If 

 such taxes are fairly adjusted, a large t-evenue can thus be 

 liaised, not only with less consciousness on the part of the 

 people, but t^ith less real hardship on them than in any other 



