163 



money is much cheaper and the artizan's wants much more 

 numerous, owing to the cold and damp climate and other 

 demands. Ordinary carpenters can, with their daily wages, 

 buy about 20 or 22 lb. of dry grain free of all husk (30 to 

 33 lb. with the husk). As the artizan's sons work with him, 

 and as work is plentiful and the caste a small one, he is 

 well off. Tables and chairs, which are coming into use 

 among the educated classes, have afforded increased employ- 

 ment to carpenters, while they have affected prejudicially the 

 carpet -weaving industry. Another noticeable feature in the 

 present situation is the gradual rise of the capital artizan 

 who, to some extent, turns out finished products in his 

 factory and sells them, instead of merely fashioning the 

 materials supplied to him by persons in need of the articles 

 and receiving the wages of labour. 



64. The best means of finding out whether the economic 

 condition of the country has improved or 

 The standard of ^qj^ jg ^q enquire whether the standard of 

 living has risen or not among all but the 

 lowest classes of labourers who practically live from hand- 

 to-mouth. There is ample evidence that this has been the 

 case.^"* On this point I have obtained the opinions of a 

 number of gentlemen who have had exceptional opportunities 

 of forming an intelligent and trustworthy opinion as to the 

 condition of landowners in different parts of the country at 

 the present time as compared with their condition in the old 

 days. The facts stated in the previous portions of this 

 memorandum place it beyond doubt that the vast majority of 

 landowners were in a state of abject poverty amounting to 

 almost destitution fifty years ago. In this connection refer- 



'^ The following extract from a recent report of the Commissioners of Public Debt 

 on the condition of European Turkey (written by Mr. Vincent Caillard, the English 

 Commissioner), will show what are the symptoms of a real deterioration in the economic 

 condition of the masses of the population. " The peasant, in the interior, has reduced his 

 wants to their simplest expression, and signs are to hand which show him to be less and 

 less able to purchase the few necessaries he requires. For instance, a few years ago in 

 many decent peasant households copper cooking utensils were to be seen. Now they 

 are scarcely to be found, and they have been sold to meet the pressing needs of the 

 moment. Their place has been taken by clay utensils, and, in the case of the more 

 affluent, by iron. The peasant's chief expenses lie in his women folk, who require 

 print stuffs for their dresses and linen for their under-clothing, but of these he gets 

 as little as possible, since as often as not, he cannot pay for them. This smallness of 

 margin is one of the reasons why the amount of importation increases so slowly. The 

 peasant hardly ever pays for his purchases in cash ; what little he has goes in taxes. 

 He effects his purchases by barter. Another significant sign is the increase of brigan- 

 dage which has taken place. New bands of brigands are continually springing up ; 

 reports from the interior are ever bringing to our knowledge some fresh acts of violent 

 robbery. This simply means that men, desperately poor and refusing to starve, take 

 to brigandag'e as a means of living." It will be observed that in Southern India, so far 

 as the conditions of the present differ from the past, the change has taken place in 

 exactly the reverSe direction to what has occurred in European Turkey. 



