1839] 



Permanent Annual Money Rents, 



is, under the existing system thrown on the poor occupant of a 39 

 rupee tenement to his utter ruin. There is also, a further disadvantage 

 to the ryot in money rents, which does not exist under the native prac- 

 tice of a division of crop. Under that system, bad as it is in all other 

 respects, there is this advantage, that the Government dues are only 

 taken, when the ryot is best able to pay them, at the precise moment 

 at which he has gathered in his produce, when it is easy for him to 

 assign to Goveiinnent its portion, and he has then no subsequent de- 

 mand to meet. But under ryotwar money rents, the entire crop is left 

 upon the ryot's hands, and all the risk of subsequent fluctuations, falls 

 upon him. The rents in money are also usually exacted wilh such 

 unsparing and rigorous punctuality, that the great body of the ryots 

 from their want of capital, are practically compelled, in order to pay 

 the Government dues, to bring the whole of their grain to market at a 

 loss within the year. "Whereas, had the rents been taken in kind, the 

 Government would have stored a large portion of the year's crop for 

 future consumption, and much would have been kept out of the markets : 

 the share left to the ryots would have been brought consequently to 

 sale gradually, arki against it is probable less competition, and to a 

 better market, even allowing for the diminished demand v. hich must 

 result, when the revenues being received in kind, Government pay- 

 ments are also made in grain. 



In the foregoing remarks on the circumstances of the south Indian 

 rj'-ot, arising out of the peculiar nature of the agriculture of the coun- 

 try — his own habits and present condition, and the state of society; 

 we have only considered the effect of permanent annual money rents 

 in cases, in which the landholder (the ryot) or the party answerable 

 for the Government tax, and the actual cultivator of the soil, is one 

 and the same. Let us now view the subject where the tenure of land 

 is different, as in provinces like Tanjore, where the land is in the hands 

 of proprietors who do not themselves till it, but enjoy a landlord's rent. 

 Where therefore, property in the soil has not to be created but actually 

 exists. It will then I believe be seen, that the rule, w^hich prescribes 

 an invariable annual demand in m.oney, is not merely unsuited to 

 the circumstances of the landholder, but if not modified, absolutely 

 destructive of his well-being and to the existence of all saleable property 

 rn the soil. 



The gross produce of the wet land in Tanjore irrigated by Govern- 

 ment works, is divided upon an average nearly as follows ; 50 per 

 cent, the Government tax or assessment, 25 percent, charges of cultiva- 

 tion or an allowance to the actual cultivator (the occupant cicdi), 12 per 



