XXUl 



and extortionate agents, produced the worst effects on the state of 

 society, by not only checking the progress of industry, oppressing the 

 manufacturer, and causing him to debase his manufacture, but also by 

 clogging the beneficial operations of commerce in general, and abridg- 

 ing the comforts of the people at large. This latter description of 

 imposts was originally considered as a branch of revenue too much 

 exposed to abuses to be entrusted to persons not liable to restraint and 

 punishment. It was, therefore, retained under the immediate manage- 

 ment of the Government. The first rates were easy, and the custom- 

 houses few ; but in the general relaxation of authority prevailing in the 

 (Jircars, this mode of raising revenue for the support of Government was 

 scandalously abused. In the course of a little time, new duties were 

 introduced under the pretence of charitable and religious donations, as 

 fees to the chokedars or account-keepers, guards and other officers at 

 the stations ; as protection money to a zemindar, or as a present to those 

 who farmed the duties. Not only had the duties been from* time to 

 time raised in their amount, and multiplied in their number, at the 

 discretion of the zemindars and the renters under them, but they were 

 at length levied at almost every stage, and on every successive transfer 

 of property. Uniformity in the principles of collection was completely 

 wanting ; a different mode of taxation prevailing in every district, in 

 respect of all the varieties of goods and other articles subject to impost. 

 This consuming system of oppression had, in some instances, been 

 aggravated by the Company's Government, which, when possessed of a 

 few factories, with a small extent of territory around them, adopted the 

 measure of placing chokies or custom stations, in the vicinity of each, 

 for the purpose of ascertaining the state of trade within their own 

 limits, as well as to afford them a source of revenue Under the head 

 of Sayer revenue was also included a variety- of taxes indefinite in their 

 amount, and vexatious in their nature, called moiurpha ; they consisted 

 of imposts on houses, on the implements of agriculture, on looms, on 

 merchants, on artificers, and other professions and castes. — [Extract 

 from the Fifth Report of the ParUamentary Committee for East India 

 afairs, 1813.) 



Nellore District {acquired from the Nabob of Carnatic in 1801), — The 

 district of Nellore did not suffer much in comparison with the rest of 

 the Carnatic in the wars which took place in the latter half of the 18th 

 century ; and being exempt from the presence of armies, was saved from 

 the devastation and drain on the population inseparable therefrom. Its 

 proximity to the seat of Government, however^ exposed it in a peculiar 

 degree to the abase and mis-government which characterised the 

 Nabob's durbar. The mass of the people were cultivators who were 

 ground down by the renters and left nothing but their ploughs and 

 cattle. There was no monied class. The head inhabitants who had 

 been sub-renters had amassed some wealth, which they hoarded. 



Persons who lived by trade were few Eoads, properly 



so called, there were none and the lines of traffic were infested by 

 robbers and dacoits. The trade of the district was unimportant and the 

 only outlet for it was by the sea. The chief commodities were grain 

 and tobacco and some cloth, while cattle were exported in some quantity 

 principally to Hyderabad. The trade in cloth was the most considerable 

 at one time. There were a number of Moghul merchants who bought 

 for the market in Bassora and the Persian Gulf, but the Englisli 



