1839] 



Permanent Annual Money Rents, 



55 



which he has no produce to meet and which must entail upon hiiu 

 ruin.* 



It is deserving of remark, that these seasons of very severe drought 

 where the seed is not returned, and which are known by a peculiar 

 term, recur on an average in the southern provinces of the JNIadras 

 presidency once in seven years. From accounts before me from 

 Coimbatore, and Trichinopoly, five years of this kind are named within 

 the last 33 years. 



But it is not only in the want of adaptation to the peculiar physical 

 circumstances of the agriculture of the country, that fixed and invariable 

 annual money rents are open to objection ; they appear also un- 

 suited to the present circumstances of the great body of ryots. The 

 mass of ihe land is held in very small parcels, by proprietors of petty 

 tenements under 30 or 40 rupees. Proprietors of this class can 

 possess little or no capital, and very limited credit, and that only upon 

 ruinous, and usurious terms. How is it possible then, that they 

 should be able to meet all the contingencies, both of price and season, 

 affecting so large a proportion, as the Government share of 33 or 45 

 per cent of the average annual produce of their land, 



* " Their objections (the lyots of Trichinopoly) are stated to have been, that if the 

 land be once assessed at a specific sum in money per cavvney, a fall in the price of 

 grain, or an unfavourable crop, will make the payment of the Government dues ex- 

 tremely difficult. Whereas, at present, we suit our consumption to our actual 

 produce ; and in the event of a deficieiii, produce, although we cannot consume so 

 much as we should in a favourable year, we have still sufficient to maintain our fami- 

 lies unburthened with any payment, unfettered by any penalties. fVe preserve our 

 lands, and if we do not grow rich, at least loe are not ulterhj ruined. 



" They alone must be the judges, whether it is more beneficial for them to pay a pro- 

 portion of the produce in kind, or, a fixed sum an equivalent in money," — Madras, 

 Rei\ Sel. vol. iii. p. 519. 



" In many cases, too, the objections (of the ryot) to fixed money-payments appear to 

 be well founded. The precariousness of the produce and the poverty of the cultivator, 

 rendering it necessary that the rent should either be paid in a proportion of the crop, or 

 that the ryot should adopt the less advantageous mode, of trusting to an undefined un- 

 derstanding that a part of the stipulated rent will eventually be veMuqinshed" .—Madras, 

 Rev. Sel. vol. ill. p. 158. 



" During my late tour through this territory (Dehli, &c.), the dissatisfaction of th« 

 zemindars at nukdee or money-settlements was almost universal, the inconvenience to 

 which they have been, in consequence, subjected from bad seasons, being of a species 

 unknown to them formerly".— 72er. Sel. vol. iii. p. 415. 



" The disadvantage immediate! resulting from this system, and which constituted the 

 chief difficulty in effecting village rents, was the balance left out- standing at the end of 

 the year, the account of the Circar grain remaining unsold ; and the difficulty of con- 

 verting it into monej', so as to realize the revenue within the year. The inhabitants 

 aware of this difficulty, were averse to the responsibility of a money rent, and the ac- 

 tual experience of many years justified their apprehension".- TZey. Sel, vol. i. p, 5ti;i, 



