12 GttOWTH UK POPULATION 



so that the landlords cannot obtain the fall economic rent. 

 In this case the gross produce has to support not only 

 Government but also a landlord class, and the minimum 

 size of holdings will again be larger. It is worth noting 

 in passing that the landlord class living upon rents is 

 itself liable to multiply in number by natural increase within 

 the limit set by its standard of living ; and, in so far as rents 

 cannot be raised, the younger members of the landlord class 

 are largely squeezed out into occupations in the cities or 

 foreign countries. Yet according to Hindu Law they take 

 their share of the rentals with them. 



In the fourth case let us assume that all the land is in 

 possession of the landlord, and that there are no legal 

 restrictions on the increase of rentals so that the tenants 

 pay practically the full economic rent, keeping to themselves 

 merely a margin of subsistence. In this case the gross 

 produoe supports the Government and the landlord class, 

 and a smaller number of cultivators, and the density of 

 population is the least of all the four cases. 



The important point to be observed is that from the 

 point of view of the cultivating class, there is not much to 

 be said in favor of any one of these systems as against 

 another, for in every case the cultivating class having a low 

 standard of living will find its earnings sooner or later 

 reduced to the mere level of subsistence. The advantage 

 commonly urged in favor of either of the first two classes, 

 that is, peasant proprietorship, lhat the peasant has every 

 encouragement to make improvements on his little farm, be- 

 cause he is likely to reap the full benefit of them is largely 

 illusory, because the more such improvements are irade the 

 smaller becomes the holding on which the average cultivator 

 has to support his family. There is no getting away from 

 the fact that it is the standard of living which is the chief 

 factor in regulating the earnings of the people. 



