ixxiv 



SECTION III.— THE CONDITION OF THE AGEICUL- 

 TUEAL CLASSES UNDER BEITISH ADMINISTRATION 

 DURING THE 1st HALF OF THE PEESENT CE?^TURY.. 



(A.) — Extract from the " Indian Economist." 

 Land Revenue : payment in kind, or in money. 



The causes of the remarkable fall in prices which has almost 

 invariably followed the transfer of territory from Native to British 

 rule, have nowhere, we think, received so satisfactory an exposition 

 as in a paper that appeared in the April number of the old Bombay 

 Quarterly Journal in 1857. We shall make no attempt to recast what 

 was there so well stated, but devote our present space to the repro- 

 duction of a part of that paper : — 



*' It seems to us that there are certain prominent characters by 

 which the British system of revenue and finance is broadly marked 

 and distinguished from that of all the Native Governments which 

 have preceded it, and that in their peculiarities we shall find an ade- 

 quate explanation of the remarkable phenomenon which we are 

 now considering. The Anglo-Indian financial system differs from 

 that of the Native Governments in the following most important 

 particulars : — 



" Istlij. — The payment of the army, police and other public estab- 

 lishments in cash. 



" 2ndly. — The collection of the land tax in money instead of 

 wholly or partially in kind. 



" Srdly. — The transfer of a portion of the Indian revenues to 

 England, for the payment of the Home charges, 

 usually and correctly styled — " The Indian Tribute." 



*' 4<thly. — The creation of a funded public debt, of which the 

 interest has to be paid in cash. 



" The charges to be defrayed out of the Indian revenue, being of 

 an inflexible character, could only be met in years of deficient collec- 

 tions by borrowing, and hence they involved the creation of a funded 

 public debt. But they brought about more important consequences 

 still ; for, the payment of troops and establishments and the interest of 

 the public debt in cash, of necessity, involved the collection of the 

 revenue in cash too, and the latter measure, however little thought of 

 at the time of its introduction by our Indian Land Revenue Collectors 

 and Financiers, has produced a momentous revolution in the value of 

 property and bearing of taxation in India far exceeding in degree, but 

 similar in kind to that effected in England by the return to cash 

 payments in 1819. 



