46 PEOGEESS IN WESTEEN INDIA 



was going on. Land in the essentially cereal-grow- 

 ing tracts of the Ahmednagar and Parner Talukas 

 (Ahmednagar district) went up to double and treble 

 its previous value during the thirty years preceding 

 1916 ; while in the Shevgaon Taluka of the same 

 district, which had begun to grow cotton on a fairly 

 extensive scale during that period, land values in- 

 creased fivefold. Even in the rice area of the 

 Eatnagiri district land values more than doubled 

 themselves between the years 1897 and 1914. 



The above figures give an idea of the enormous 

 rise in land values and rents which has taken place 

 during recent years in western India ; and it will be 

 noticed that they refer to the period prior to 1917 

 when values of all kinds in India began to be seriously 

 affected by causes arising out of the war. 



Closely connected with the rising value of land is 

 the question of profits derived from the land. In a 

 country where the bulk of the people are dependent 

 on the land for their living, and where land is regarded 

 as the safest investment for capital, land values are 

 apt to be unduly inflated. This is certainly often 

 the case in India. Land values must, however, 

 depend mainly on the profits that are derived from 

 the land, and it is obvious that rentals must bear a 

 very direct relation to the profits of cultivation. 

 Assuming, therefore, for the moment, that there has 

 been no general or marked increase in the outturn of 

 crops, per acre, it would be expected that, with rising 

 land values and rentals, there must have been an 



