WAGES 143 



century, however, wages rose to about 5 annas and 

 continued to rise slowly until in the last few years 

 there has again been a sharp rise, and at the present 

 time, in a normal year, wages in the more prosperous 

 districts amount to as much as 8 or 10 annas a day, 

 and at harvest time rise to 12 annas or more. Real 

 wages, which for rural labourers may be expressed 

 with fair accuracy in terms of food values, had a very 

 chequered course during the last quarter of the nine- 

 teenth century. They fluctuated violently from 

 district to district and from year to year, according 

 to the nature of the season, and it was common for 

 them to vary from 4 to 7 sers (1 ser = 2 lb.) of jowari 

 a day, in the course of every three or four years, if we 

 express the money wages in terms of the standard food, 

 while in famine years the average wage represented 

 less than 2 sers. In the early years of the twentieth 

 century real wages tended to steady at about 5 sers 

 of jowari a day, and in the last few years the fact 

 that the money wage and food prices have both 

 approximately doubled leaves the situation practically 

 unchanged. The above estimate is, of necessity, of a 

 very general nature, and the improvement in the posi- 

 tion of the labourer is greater than the figures appear 

 to indicate. The more enterprising and energetic 

 labourers nowadays move freely to the localities where 

 the best wages are available, the less energetic work 

 for shorter hours, and for all classes of labour the 

 demand is now far more steady and continuous than it 

 used to be. A consideration of the difference between 



