292 



prices of food-grains during recent normal years have not been 

 higher than the average prices of years prior to the famine of 

 1876-78, notwithstanding that in the intervening period there 

 has been a great fall in the value of silver. In this connection 

 it must be remembered that the tendency of increase of popula- 

 tion accompanied by a more than corresponding increase of 

 wealth is generally not to augment the share of wealth of the 

 different classes in a uniform ratio, but to improve the condi- 

 tion of such sections of the society as are able to profit by the 

 opportunities afforded by the new o^egime in a marked degree, 

 while benefiting in a less degree other sections of the com- 

 munity, and in some cases even rendering the condition 

 of the very lowest landless classes of the population harder 

 than before. The following illustration, in which the figures 

 assumed are entirely hypothetical, will show what is meant. 

 If the average income per head of the population were, 

 twenty years ago, Rs. 30 per annum, and if wealth has since 

 increased by 30 per cent, while the population has increased 

 by 15 per cent., the income per head of the population at 

 present would be a little less than Es. 34 per annum. The 

 income of all classes, however, would not have increased in 

 the ratio of 34 to 30, but that of the higher and more intelli- 

 gent classes would have increased in a greater ratio, while 

 that of the less intelligent and helpless classes in a smaller 

 ratio or even diminished. The peculiarly satisfactory feature 

 of the present position is that the condition of the lowest 

 classes has not in any way deteriorated, but, on the contrary, 

 in so far as these classes have been able to take advantage 

 of the opportunities for employment opened out to them, has 

 improved for three reasons, viz., the prices of food-grains, 

 which rose enormously between the years 1860 and 1870 

 owing to special causes, declined afterwards, while the money 

 wages which had risen at the same time remained steady 

 or even increased ; the prices of imported articles, chiefly 

 clothing and metals, declined ; and the abolition of slavery and 

 serfdom, and the discouragement by Government in adminis- 

 trative arrangements of all social rules and usages tending to 

 depress the condition of the lower classes have ensured to 

 these classes greater opportunities for employment and 

 greater security in the enjoyment of their earnings. ^-^ 



'-' I have dwelt at greater length on the question of the pressure of population 

 during the last twenty years in a reply published by me in the Madras Mail to certain 

 criticisms which appeared in an article in the Calcutta Review of January 1893. I have 

 given in appendix VI.-D. (1) extracts from my reply omitting all matter of a contro- 

 vereial nature not possessing any but very temporary interest. 



