( iT) 



6. Having reviewed the condition of the agricultural 



classes before and after the establishment of British power, 



^ . the author proceeds,* by the help of 



statistics, to examine what progress 



has been made during the last 40 years, and he divides the 



subject into the following heads : — . 



(a) population ; • 



(b) area of cultivation ; 



(c) prices of produce ; 



(d) improvement in the processes of production and in 



communications ; 



(e) foreign and domestic trade; 



(f) taxatioT2 ; and , . . • • 



(g) the standard of living of the different classes of the 



population. 



The figure? of tKe census of 1891 show that during the 

 last decade the population of the Presidency increased by 4^ 

 millions or by 15*6 per cent.; and assuming — as seems reason- 

 able — that no such famine as that of 1876-78 will, recur 

 within a century, the author calculates the normal increase of 

 population under pl'esent conditions to be not much less than 

 1 per cent, per annum. That the bulk of the population is 

 not devoid of the means of subsistence is the necessary infer- 

 ence from this high rate of increase. Upon the question 

 whether the advance in area cultivated has been equal to the 

 inciease in population, the author finds, upon the data availa- 

 ble, that since 1852 the increase in area cultivated has been 

 25, 41, and 138 per cent, of dry, wet, and well lands -respec- 

 tively, and that the increased pr(iduction has been very con- 

 siderable. In regard to prices, the conclusions arrived at 

 are that from 1828 to 1853 prices rapidly declined until they 

 were 25 per cent, below those which ruled in the early years 

 of the century ; that between 1853 and 1865 they rose till they 

 were twice as high as at the begfinning of the century ; that 

 from this level they declined by about 20 per cent, after 1870 ; 

 and that the average prices of the five years previous to 189P 

 show a slight increase over those of the lustrum ending with 

 1874. The author gives some interesting statistics showing 

 the vast improvements which have been made in communica- 

 tions and the effect produced thereby upon trade and prices, 

 especially in the levelling of prices in times of local scarcity. 

 By the development of communications the abolition of tran- 

 sit dulPieg and of customs duties, trade, both internal and 

 external, has advanced by enormous strides, in illustration of 

 thig statement the port of Tuticorin is cited. The value (;>f the 



