1839] 



Permanent Annual Money Rents. 



11 



ment agency for introcluciTig for sale into famine districts only, timely 

 supplies from distant and foreign markets, at the risk of Government 5 

 whilst the home, or the local trade should be left altogether to take 

 its own com'se, and pm'chase large or small supplies as it might see fit. 



The mode in which the interference of Government could best be 

 effected, experience can alone determine. But on general princi- 

 ples, it would appear right to interpose in the first instance, by 

 throwing Government capital into the existing grain trade, in the 

 form of advances to native merchants, and others, who might be willing 

 to import grain at their own risk, into districts threatened with, or 

 suffering from dearth. This assistance has an advantage over the 

 principle ot a bounty as it furnishes the capital by w^hich the suppliesj 

 are to be obtained, and might readily be afforded, by authorizing Col- 

 lectors to grant pro tempore, bills at favourable rates on the treasuries 

 in those provinces, in w^hich grain was abundant and cheap. To this 

 should be added bounties on importation ; and it might be also highly 

 desirable for the Government to offer to the native trader peculiar fa- 

 cilities, either Government vessels or land carriage, for the safe 

 transport of his grain to the districts where famine existed — that no 

 impediment might arise to the introduction of his supplies, from the 

 want of carriage, or from the fear of violence from a suffering population. 



If these means failed, and it shall be found, that the native trader 

 is not equal to the task of providing the extra supplies needed in 

 seasons of famine, and that neither his credit, nor any securities he 

 could otFer, are such, as could warrant large Government advances 

 to him, — then it would be no departure from sound principles, to employ 

 a Government agency — for procuring grain from distant markets. The 

 present course sanctioned by Government, by which its treasury is open 

 to its Commissariat, to purchase up in one hour from the wholesale deal" 

 er, the entire stocks actually in the home market; whilst the re- 

 tail trader is left, either wdthout any supply, or to seek it from 

 a distance, is now a practical interference of the worst kind, one 

 which must greatly aggravate the distress. At Nagpore in 1833j 

 it is reported to have instantly converted scarcity into an absolute 

 famine — and it is not easy to conceive it to be a wise course 

 even in a financial point of view. For the same supply, procured in the 

 distant market, where grain had not reached famine prices, would it is 

 probable cost less even with the carriage, than when purchased at 

 scarcity prices. Instead of the present practice, I should be inclined to 

 suggest, even though it might occasion loss to Government, that in 

 seasons of great dearth, the Commissariat should be prohibited from 



