NINETEENTH-CENTURY PRICES 



295 



The first six articles give the number of seers per rupee, the ghi and 

 mustard-oil the price per maund in rupees, and the cowries the number of 

 pans per rupee. 



For the nineteenth century we have a record of 

 prices in the United Provinces, sufficiently detailed 

 to enable us to form accurate conclusions. The 

 general tendency of prices is indicated in the two 

 diagrams on which I have represented the prices of 

 (1) wheat and (2) barley at Bareilly from 1805 to 1899. 

 Bareilly is one of the markets for which we possess a 

 continuous record almost from the beginning to the 

 end of the century, and it is given here as typical of 

 the markets of the province. There are several 

 points in this chart which deserve attention. In the 

 first place, it is evident at a glance that before the 

 year 1861 prices fluctuated violently and irregularly, 

 and that since 1861 prices have been comparatively 

 stable at a higher level. It is hardly necessary to 

 point out that this is the natural result of improve- 

 ment in the means of communication. A small 

 market, dependent for its supplies upon the crops 

 of a restricted area, is necessarily subject to violent 

 fluctuations corresponding with the vicissitudes of 

 the seasons. Railway communications have so ex- 

 tended the area of supply that the whole of Northern 

 India, excluding the mountainous districts, is now 

 one market for grain. An average price is estab- 



