HARVEST PRICES 217 



the market. In 1874 Mr. P. J. White picturesquely 

 remarked : ' The profusion of harvest prices shows 

 what a necessitous creature is your ordinary ryot. 

 He cannot wait till after harvest until the grain-dealer 

 shall pay him a price in some agreement with the 

 average annual value of the produce. The poor helot 

 of the soil is forced to sell at once, forced to flood an 

 already full market, and thus with open eyes depre- 

 ciate his own goods, because his, as well as his land- 

 lord's, first necessity is silver wherewith to pay the 

 rent and the revenue.'* And Mr. White proceeded 

 to give an interesting table showing the difference 

 between bazaar and harvest prices for many kinds of 

 agricultural produce for the ten years 1858-67. The 

 average variation during this period between bazaar 

 and harvest prices was : 



Seers in the Rupee. 



Wheat ... ... ... ... 10 



Gram ... ... ... ... 14 



Barley ... ... ... ... 10 



Juar ... ... ... ... 8 



Bajra ... ... ... ... 7 



These are only the average variations, but the actual 

 difference is in some years much greater than this. 



Mr. White recorded the facts, in themselves unsatis- 

 factory enough, which passed before his eyes, but there 

 is reason to believe that even in his time the cultivator 

 had begun to improve his position. The point was 

 dealt with about the same time by Mr. R. S. Whiteway 

 in his ' Report on the Settlement of the Muttra District ' 

 (1879) in so interesting a manner as to justify quotation 

 at length : 



' There are two sets of prices in this district. They 

 are the prices which govern transactions in the open 

 market — that is, bazaar prices — and those which govern 

 the transactions between grain-dealers and the pro- 



* P. J. White, ' General Report on the Settlement of Parganna 

 Koonch, Zillah Jalaun,' 1874. 



