1848.] 



Notices. 



199 



one from the Saugor and Nerbudda territories from 1831 to 1840, 

 and from 1843 to 1846. In 1843 wheat sold at 167 lbs. avoirdupois 

 for two shillings ; and at seven markets enumerated, the price per 

 quarter English varied only from five shillings and six pence, to six 

 shillings and eight pence. The Bengal tables, independently of the 

 bread stuffs, gave the prices of beef, mutton, fowls, salt, sugar, 

 &c. From these it appeared that at some places a bullock could 

 be bought for ten shillings, a sheep for one shilling, and twenty 

 fowls for two shillings. Salt varied exceedingly in price, from 5| 

 lbs. for two shillings at Calcutta, to 49} lbs. at Cuttack, the averages 

 being 20 lbs. 9 oz. for two shillings. The Government sold the 

 monopoly salt at from 20 J lbs. to 251bs. for two shillings; and a 

 curious fact was elicited from the tables, that out of the limits of 

 Bengal proper and beyond Allahabad, the retail price of salt was 

 lower than the wholesale Government price ; the wholesale price of 

 Cuttack salt being 20| lbs. and the retail price out of Bengal pro- 

 per 23*- lbs. showing that there must be sources of supply indepen- 

 dent of the Government monopoly salt. At a labourer's wages of 

 six shillings per mensem, a third of a month's wages would supply 

 him with a sufficiency of salt at the different stations, varying from 

 three months in Calcutta to thirty-five months at Kheir, in the Dec- 

 can, and forty-five months in Bombay. The following table exhibits 

 the final results. 



