paddy per diem according to the locality ; and at the present day he 

 receives exactly twelve to fifteen pounds according to the locality. All 

 wages that are paid in money have risen by more than one-third.; all wages 

 that are paid in kind remain the same. 



These, it should be remembered, are the results of only twenty 

 years. During this brief period, silver has lost more than a third of 

 its purchasing power, whether expressed in wages, or in the staple 

 food of the people. Indeed, one District officer reports to me that the 

 price of food has doubled within twelve years. The public revenues 

 have been depreciated to at least one-third of their former purchasing 

 power, whether expressed in wages or in grain. I have already shown 

 that the value of silver, as estimated in the popular or cowrie currency, 

 has fallen thirty per cent. ^'^^ since 1804, even calculated at the rate of 

 exchange which Government then arbitrarily fixed in its own favour. 

 If computed according to the actual rate of exchange then current, it 

 has decreased by one-half. Had our first administrators contented 

 themselves with taking payment in silver at the current rate of the 

 cowrie exchange, the Orissa land-tax would now have been double 

 what it is at present. But had they resolved to collect it at a grain 

 valuation, according to Akbar's wise policy, it would now be more than 

 double ; for the prices of food have rather more than doubled since 

 1804. The system of paying the land-tax by a grain valuation appears 

 to me to be the best means of giving stability to the Indian revenues. 

 In Orissa, it would have enabled us to reduce the salt duty to the easy 

 Madras rate ; it would have saved the necessity of an income-tax 

 altogether ; and by shorter leases, it would now yield as large an income 

 as the total which we extract by a variety of vexatious burdens. 



The experience of the past few years shows that the fall in value 

 of silver still continues. Every morning the Government of India 

 wakes up poorer than when it went to bed the night before. A lakh of 

 rupees in 1850 represented a great deal more in actual purchasing power 

 than a lakh of rupees in 1860; and a lakh of rupees in 1860 repre- 

 sented a great deal more than it did in 1870. Apart, therefore, from 

 the cost of increased efficiency in the administration, the English in 

 India must inevitably go on increasing the miscellaneous public 

 burdens so obnoxious to the people, as long as the land-tax is calculated 

 in silver. The one remedy is a grain valuation, either struck annually 

 or revised at intervals of about five years. It might be possible to 

 suggest several sources of revenue, such as a duty on Fan, the aromatic 

 leaf that the people chew instead of tobacco, which would be less 

 unpopular than the income-tax. But miscellaneous imposts, however 

 unobjectionable in themselves, are mere makeshifts and stop-gaps in a 

 fiscal system like that of Bengal. The secret of making India pay is 

 the due conservation of the land-tax ; and in order to conserve the land- 

 tax, it must be estimated, not, as in Orissa, upon the so-called rent of 

 the landholder, but upon the actual produce of the soil. Until this 

 necessity is realized and acted upon, every few years will bring a 

 fresh set of financial embarrassments. Under the present system, with- 

 out adding a single Judge, or Magistrate, or officer of any sort to the 

 Civil List ; without granting one of the administrative improvements 



^° I'^-f >', on = 70 per cent., showing a decrease of 30 per cont- 



