56 PKOGKESS IN WESTEKN INDIA 



The tendency of the people to hoard gold is well 

 known and the increasing imports of gold into India 

 are a matter of common knowledge. It is difficult to 

 say what part of the total imports of gold into India 

 must be credited to the Bombay Presidency; but a 

 consideration of the figures leads to the idea that in 

 the period referred to in the last table the annual 

 hoarding of gold in the Bombay Presidency increased 

 by about Ks.200 lakhs. 



Summing up the facts noted above, it may be 

 roughly estimated that during the first fifteen years of 

 this century the annual spending capacity of a family 

 of five persons on articles of comfort and luxury 

 (including gold) increased by about Us. 10. 



As regards the capacity of the rural population as 

 a whole to withstand the effects of a severe and wide- 

 spread crop failure, a comparison between the famines 

 of 1899-1900 and 1918-19 is instructive. In 1899-1900 

 a widespread area was affected, including almost the 

 whole of the Deccan and Gujarat. In 1918-19 the 

 area affected was equally large, and in some respects 

 conditions were worse, since the crops in the west 

 Deccan and Konkan were inferior to those of 1899- 

 1900, the crop failure was more general throughout 

 India, and the situation was complicated by the fact 

 that there were very short stocks of grain in India, 

 and that the carrying capacity of the railways had 

 fallen off greatly as a result of the war. In 1899-1900 

 there was an enormous demand for famine relief work, 

 and for the whole period of twelve months, from 



