74 Notes on Ryot war, or ■ [Jan. 



confine it in a great measure to a limited number: and the native mer- 

 chants of tlie Madras Presidency have little of the energy and enter- 

 prize, which characterize the European trader, and which could fit thera 

 for the task of meeting the emergency of a famine demand. To such a de- 

 gree is this inertness carried, that rice may be selling at Madras at double 

 its ordinary value, and be comparatively a drug in Tanjore, yet neither 

 the merchant, nor the native craft-owner would think of attemj)ting to 

 bring up a single bag by sea, till the monsoon was favourable. And the 

 >vhole coasting traffic of the presidency, so far as the native merchant is 

 concerned, is at this hour regulated, not by the varying demands 

 of the market, as by the monsoon — I might ask, what application has the 

 reasoning of Smith to a trade so circumstanced ? 



As an instance of the manner in which native maritime traffic is carried 

 on at this hour, I may mention the fact, that the master of a vessel leaving 

 the port of Nagore with a cargo for the Eastward, on meeting with an 

 adverse wind even within 24 or 48 hours sail of Penang, now immediately 

 tacks, returns leisurely to Nagore, puts his vessel into dock, lands all the 

 cargo, and patiently abides the favourable season of the following year, 

 before he again attempts to take his cargo to its market. — This, and similar 

 facts, furnished to me not as special cases, but as samples of the ordi- 

 nary routine, afford sufficient proof of the present infant state of native 

 commerce, and they are of great importance in their bearing upon the 

 grain trade. For they go far, I conceive, to prove, that in this trade at 

 least, where supplies cannot be waited for many days, it is not correct to 

 assume as an established principle, as the government orders do, that the 

 demand in the trade in South India always meets at the hand^ of the na- 

 tive trader with as full a supply as circumstances admit. 



But the grain trade in this country, has not only to struggle against 

 the want of energy, and enterprize of the small body of dealers to whom 

 it is by usage confined : but even if they had the necessary enterprize, I 

 would enquire, where, in the emergency of famine, are they to find the 

 extra capital which shall enable them to purchase, and bring to market 

 the requisite supplies at the high prices of dearth ? Let us suppose that 

 the average supply of rice for Madras is 10,000 garces m the year, and 

 the capital required, when grain sells at its ordinary rate, 20 lakhs of 

 rupees. — Owing to the scarcity, price rises 100 percent, and the demand, 

 in consequence of the more frugal consumption caused by high price, 

 falls oft' 20 to 30 per cent — still large extra funds are required in the 

 trade in order to bring the reduced supply to market in due time. — Where 

 can the grain merchants now procure this additional capital. Their cre- 

 dit is not of that character, that private capitalists would advance largely, 



