OF BURDWAN. gf(f 



•■ 





ctiftriclof Mirbhurti, may Be - idled- u|tori. The difference in the price 

 of rice, in the re f^eftiv-e months of : Pus irid A/cirh of each year is 

 worthy of obf^rvatiori: a fimuar variation of price at thofe : periods is 

 general throughout the inferior of the we Item diftri&s of Bengal, and 

 is a fource of abundant profit to the mbre opulent mahajarts or fpecu- 

 lators in that article, and of considerable injury to the indigent clalfes 

 of cultivators ; thefe laft are generally in debt to the village mahajans ; 

 they procure rice for feed and for the corifumption of their families ei- 

 ther by a ruinous mortgage of the enluirtg crop, or at an exorbitant rate 

 of intereft in the month q%$Afarfa t a period when the price is almoft uni- 

 formly higher than at any other period. In Pus when the principal 

 harveft is gathered, they are under the neceffity of immediately difpof^ 

 ing of the produce of their fields to enable them to difcharge the heavy 

 inftalments of their rent which then become due. They have neither < 

 refouroes fufficient • to difpofe of The grain at a diflant market, nor to 

 postpone the fale until a more favorable period. They are thus com- 

 pelled to throw nearly the whole produce of the village into a confined 

 market at the fame time, and the only purchafers are the mahajans . of 

 the village, who are thus able to fix the rates almoft at their own difcre- 

 tioa. This evil is of courfe lefs felt in the neighbourhood of navigable 

 risers, ( Elambazcr is on the banks of the Adjy,) and in the vicinity of 

 large towns, .and the price in Calcutta does not effentially vary at thofe 

 feafons which in the interior of the country are refpeclivcly the cheap- 

 en or deareft periods. 



No. 7. I procured this document from a refpe&able grain mer- 

 chant reliding at the town of Mdncaur, in the diftricl: of Burdzoan. From 

 the enquiries which [ had aa opporuaity of making on the fpot, I have 

 region to believe .that it is prepared with perfect accuracy, 



6U 





