cox 



it at annas 2 and pies 3 a yard, i.e., Rs. 1-2-0 the whole. Country-spun 

 cloths are dearer than Manchester manufactures or those of Bombay 

 mills ; but even for them the yarn is all English. In towns, at all 

 events, 80 per cent, of the male population buy Manchester cloths. 

 The higher classes of females in this part of the country wear country 

 manufactures of the silk and colored kind. Comparison of prices 

 here seems almost hopeless ; fashion has changed so enormously during 

 these 30 or 40 years. Looking into a large bundle of sales of cloths, 

 I find that female cloths, 99 per cent, of them, varied in price between 

 Rs. 3 and 7. These cloths have been substituted by others whose 

 average price may be put down at least at Rs. 10. These, of course, 

 are much prettier in appearance, and contain far more of silk. I am 

 not prepared to say that cloths of the same quality would be cheaper 

 now than in those days. What of .cheapness in the material used may 

 be made up by the increased rates of wages, but one thing is certain 

 that the better classes wear clothing now nearly three times as costly 

 as those worn by their grandmothers. This fact may in itself be worth 

 noting. The lower classes, including the working classes — by lotver I 

 don't mean lower by caste, but chiefly by wealth — are much more 

 decently clothed than they ever were. For Rs. 1-12-0 or Rs. 2 they 

 get a female cloth, of cotton entirely — the work of Bombay mills or 

 English ; they get' a cloth of the same pattern as the QstririsrrQ cloth. 

 Within my own knowledge in this town, i,e., during the last 20 years, 

 the dress of the lower classes has vastly improved ; and this improve- 

 ment is more than half of it due to cheapness of clothing. 



And just a few words on the economic question you are busy with. 

 I have no idea of the results you have arrived at, or even of the exact 

 lines on which you have been working. Still I shall venture to say a 

 few words, although I know that the question has to be looked at from 

 various points of view. 



I have a pretty vivid recollection of how things were in South 

 Arcot and in this district 35 years ago when a boy. I had oppor- 

 tunities of travelling through South Arcot and Tan j ore. I have 

 travelled, too, over the same parts of the country recently. In the 

 villages, substantial brick-built houses have now taken the place of 

 thatched houses of old ; brass and copper vessels, as also of bronze and 

 tin, are used where earthen and wooden vessels were used ; clothing is 

 decidedly better, far more elegant and costly ; and five times at least 

 more of gold and silver jewellery than in former days. I am not 

 prepared to say that everywhere in the country it is so. But it is so 

 in most places I have visited. Whether people are more M'ealthy or 

 not, there is far more display of wealth now than there was in days 

 when I was a boy of ten. And almost every intelligent elderly man 

 I have conversed with has told me the same as his observation. 

 Another significant fact is the rise in the price of land in this district as 

 elsewhere. Forty years ago a relation of mine who owned lands near 

 Karikal, sold 15 velies or 100 acres of land for Rs. 2,000, and the 

 same would sell now at Rs. 20,000, i.e., ten-fold. Confining ourselves 

 to the last 50 years only, I am not inclined to believe in the cry of 

 increasing poverty of the country. Beyond a shadow of doubt, people 

 are now better fed, better clothed and better housed. Whether the 

 country might not be far richer, were it not for this or that, is another 



