1 80 THE DIVISION OF LABOUR 



thus a direct incentive to poison cattle. Now, these 

 are on the whole very liberal allowances, considering 

 the duties for which they are the recognised equivalent, 

 and are very highly valued, so much so that there is 

 great competition among such people for these privi- 

 leges. They are rigidly and punctually claimed ; the 

 right descends from father to son ; they greatly resent 

 the intrusion of strange families who might possibly 

 encroach upon their rights, and they strictly boycott a 

 man who withholds their perquisites. Nothing is more 

 ridiculous than to call such people drudges and slaves ; 

 on the contrary, they are a decided power in the rural 

 community. There can be no question but that they 

 have greatly improved in position, and become more 

 independent under British rule. Old Thakur land- 

 lords have often complained bitterly to me of the 

 insolence of this class, the fact being that they are no 

 longer inclined to submit to bullying and drudgery. 

 They know their rights, and are determined to assert 

 them.' 



Those who believe that the economic conditions of 

 an Indian village are regulated by custom, and not by 

 competition, will find the most plausible support of 

 their theory in the remuneration paid to the village 

 artisans. It must be confessed that the scale of pay 

 which these persons receive is looked upon as per- 

 manently fixed, and is, in fact, very rarely altered. 

 But this alone does not justify the conclusion that 

 competition is wholly inoperative. All the world 

 over wages (or the price of services) vary much more 

 slowly than the price of commodities, and the wages 

 of an artisan (i) employed by a body of villagers, and 

 (2) receiving his wages in kind, must, naturally, of all 

 wages, be the most difficult to alter. Nor does it 

 necessarily follow that, because the rate of remunera- 

 tion remains nominally unaltered, a real change does 

 not take place under the stress of competition. In 

 recent years the employment open to carpenters, 



