REDUCTIONS IN THE LAND REVENUE 31 



The last is of as much practical consequence as the 

 first, for if his income is moderately estimated, the 

 landlord can afford to pay a large proportion of it ; 

 whereas an assessment which professes to be only a 

 small proportion of his income may be very burden- 

 some in fact, if that income has been overestimated. 



With regard to the first, the answer is easily given. 

 In the last hundred years the Government has sur- 

 rendered to the landlords a constantly increasing pro- 

 portion of the income from land. The following table* 

 shows the gradual increase in the share of the 'assets' 

 which the proprietors have been allowed to retain : 



Year. 



1812 

 1822 

 1832 

 1849 



1855 

 1885 



Share of Assets surrendered 

 to the Proprietors. 



10 per cent, of prospective assets. 



20 „ 



27i „ 



33S n 



5° >, 



50 per cent, of actual assets. 



It is rather startling to find that the officers who 

 were desirous of creating a body of English landlords 

 in India were at the time levying a tax upon land 

 equal to 90 per cent, of the assets. Nor were their 

 estimates of the assets lenient. In many cases we 

 know that their assessments represented an increase 

 upon the demands of the Government to which they 

 succeeded.! 



These estimates, too, were constantly being revised, 

 and usually enhanced. The fiscal history of the pro- 

 vince, until the passing of Regulation VII. of 1822, 



* From the 'Statistical Atlas of India,' p. 57. 



f In Mainpuri, for instance, ' we find that these assessments were 

 fixed at a considerable increase on the Jama formerly realized by 

 the Nawab Wazir's Government, partly, as the Collector admitted, 

 through higher offers being made, and partly on the summary 

 inquiries which had been instituted into the capabilities of estates ' 

 (' Mainpuri Settlement Report, 1875,' M. A. McConaghey and D. M. 

 Smeaton). 



