Tlie IndiwA WJieai Tradd. 
01 
brought about by competition with lines serving Bombay ; but 
reductions great or small liave been general, and those affecting 
important centres of the wheat districts have been greatest. 
With respect to the replies to the question as to the prices 
obtained by the ryots, it will be noticed that nine are to the 
effect that they are better, one that they are probably better, 
one that they are about the same, one doubtful, and two " per- 
haps " or " probably " worse. The last two are from the same 
districts in which the cost of transport is declared to be higher, 
and one of these has been shown to be mistaken as far as rail 
rates are concerned. If the price of wheat at Calcutta has gone 
up rather than down during the last ten years, and the rail rate 
from Cawnpore has been reduced by more than 3| rupees per 
quarter, it is diflScult to imagine how the price in that market 
can be worse than it has been generally since 1871. Possibly 
the advantage of reduced cost of transport may have been re- 
tained by dealers, and not allowed to benefit the ryots, in 
the districts referred to, and in that case the apparent conflict 
of evidence may be explained. At any rate, the evidence from 
ten out of thirteen districts from which a definite reply came is 
in favour of the ryot having obtained of late a better price for 
his wheat than he formerly received. 
Fortunately we are not left to conjecture as to this question 
of the course of prices, as they are published annually by the 
Indian Government, and from some tables showing prices in 
several districts of the most important provinces for many years 
past I have worked out the mean prices for each province for 
1881, when the export trade fii-st became imjx)rtant, and 1886, 
the latest year for which the prices are available. The prices 
are in seers (2 lbs.) per rupee, and it will of course be under- 
stood that the fewer seers are given for a rupee the higher the 
price is. ~ ... 
Price op Wijeat^ix ^ERa per Rupee. 
' I 
Province " ' 
No.'of districts ' 
1881 
1883 
13 
1718 
1713 
North-Western Provinces . . 
12 
17-34 
16-59 
Oudh 
3 
19-83 
19-84 
6 
15-8G 
19-37 
Central Provinces 
3 
26-55 
20-65 
7 
12-50 
12-90 
8 
13-14 
13-81 
Mean for these Provinces . 
17-49 
17-18 
The prices given are averages for each year, and the figures 
above represent the mean of these averages for each province. 
