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at the time of the harvest, and occasionally even as much as 

 25 per cent. This difference in price is due no doubt partly 

 to the inability of the majority of the ryots to wait for a 

 price; but even if they waited they would not be able to 

 profit by the whole difference, for that difference consists, to 

 a considerable extent, of the wastage and dryage of grain 

 during the intervening period and the charges for storing. 

 The gains of the money or grain lenders are, taking one year 

 with another, and allowing for losses, not more than what 

 keen men of business can reasonably expect for the time they 

 give to the business and the risks they undergo. And in the 

 case of the poorest ryots, the money lenders are almost a 

 necessity, seeing to what extent, under the conditions of 

 climate, the outturn of harvests in this country differs from 

 year to year. The late Rajah Sir T. Madhava Rao has ex- 

 plained the useful service this class renders to the ryots with 

 reference to the state of things in the Baroda State. He 

 states " The ryot can never, as a rule, altogether dispense 

 with the services of the sowkar ; for the seasons are not so 

 regular, nor are the means of irrigation so extensive as to 

 ensure equality or constancy of production. Again, the land 

 tax is, in most cases, fixed, and absorbs a considerable pro- 

 portion of the produce ; and again, prices of produce fluctuate, 

 changing the incidence of tax fi-om year to year. In other 

 words, while the outturn of the land is necessarily varying, 

 the ryot has to pay a fixed and considerable tax which must 

 come from the land. In other words, again, the exchequer 

 has to draw a constant and continuous stream out of a fitful 

 supply. The sowkar by his interposition meets the mechanical 

 necessity of the problem. He is the receiver of the fitful 

 supply, and makes the ryot pay the sirkar equably. He 

 often performs another useful function, namely, he enables 

 the ryot also to draw from that fitful supply an equable sub- 

 sistence for himself and his family. It is thus to him that 

 the sirkar and the ryot are indebted for equalizing the annual 

 receipts from a fluctuating source. He, therefore, fulfils 

 beneficial duties and deserves to be conserved as an almost 

 indispensable part of the rural organization. At the same 

 time we are bound to see that he does •not over-ride the 

 interests of the ryot. Let the Civil Courts enable the sowkar 

 to recover his just claims from the ryots. But the Courts 

 should not permit the sowkars to press the ryots to the point 

 of crushing." The speculators in commercial produce per- 

 form equalJy useful functions. By watching the state of the 

 market for different kinds of produce in different parts of the 

 world, and entering into contracts to take the produce which 



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