1839] 



Permanent Annual Money Rents. 



69 



low average, might safely go on for seven or ten years together, and 

 new engagements would not be called for oftener under this system, 

 than once in ten years. 



The advantages which the proposed plan would possess, over the 

 present system, are. — First, that it unites the benefits which result to Go- 

 vernment from an assessment in money, with those which the ryot 

 enjoys from an assessment in kind. That it does not like the ryotwar 

 require from a people wholly unprepared for it, the duty of a fore- 

 thought foreign to their habits, nor throw upon them the burthen, to 

 which they are unequal, of all fluctuations of prices, as well as of 

 periodical drought, and of alterations in the value of raone\^ 



Secondly, it provides more effectually for the profitable outlay of 

 capital in the improvement of the land, by establishing a better defined 

 and more certain Government demand, a maximum rent not liable to 

 fluctuation. 



Thirdly, it secures the landholder, equally wi(h the immemorial 

 division of the crop, from the ruin, and total bankru[>tcy, whicli seasons 

 of excessive drought must bring v/ith them, when he is, as at present, 

 required to yield at such tim^^^s to Governmerit, the '3 or 45 per cent, 

 of a produce, of which he has never reaped ten, nor possibly one per 

 cent. 



The Government revenues would also suffer, but little in the course 

 of years, as the treasury would b-^. f iled by the extra levy, in years of 

 average crops and high prices, avid by the more regular payments in- 

 ordinary years, the consequence of a more equable demand. The cases 

 of failure also would necessarily be few, when the Government itself 

 shall provide against the larger fluctuations, and when the system in 

 force, shall not call for the exercise of a providence which will not be 

 found amongst the ryots for generations to come-, and which were it 

 now the national characteristic, would not avail the ryot under the ex- 

 isting high rate of tax on the land, joined with the extreme subdivision 

 of property growing out of present usages. Both these causes preclud- 

 ing the accumulation of capital in the hands of the landholders, 

 which might enable them to meet the heavy Government demand in 

 unfavourable seasons. 



It may be observed finally, that, if this substitution of a commutable 

 corn or produce rent, for a fixed money rent, has been found of late 

 years, from the great fluctuations in price alone, expedient even in 

 England, where the farmers and holders of land compared with the 

 South Indian ryots, are persons of large capital and extensive credit ; 

 and where also, produce and prices never fluctuate to such wide ex- 

 tremes. It would appear to be still more required in South India, 



