Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/490

454 became common. Sixty-three per cent of the imports of private merchandise came from the United Kingdom. Cotton piece goods represented one-third of the imports, and of this trade the United Kingdom had nearly a monopoly, 98 % of the white and grey goods and 93-5 % of the coloured goods coming from it. Other large items in the imports were iron and steel, in which trade the United King- dom's share was 60%; sugar, chiefly from Java and Mauritius; rail- way plant and rolling stock and iron and steel, chiefly from the United Kingdom. Of the exports 25 % went to the United Kingdom, 10 % to Germany, 7-5 % to Japan and the United States respectively, and 6-6 % to France.

The war at first brought the Indian overseas trade to a standstill. Exports to Central Europe, which had hitherto been a good customer of India's raw materials, ceased. The invasion of Belgium and the military preoccupations of Marseilles upset the oil-seed and ground- nut trade. A great shortage of shipping arose. Indian importing houses closed their commitments in the United Kingdom for piece goods and other manufactures. But before long India began to adapt itself to war conditions. Jute cloth for sand bags, hides for army boots, raw wool and tea were exported in enormous quantities. Heavy shipments of wheat were made on Government account. Japan was a large buyer of Indian raw cotton, to be returned to India in the form of piece goods. In 1915-6 the export trade of India did extremely well, and better still in the following years. In 1918-9 the gross exports and imports of private merchandise exceeded the highest pre-war figures, being 169,000,000 and 113,000,000 respectively. This increase of value, however, was largely due to abnormally high prices, and was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in the volume of trade. The war also affected the distribution of this over- seas trade. On account of shipping difficulties and the inability of English manufacturers to produce goods the United Kingdom lost part of its pre-war share of the import trade, and Japan and the United States gained at its expense. In 1918-9 the United King- dom's share of India's imports had declined from the pre-war 64% to 46%, while the shares of Japan and the United States had in- creased from 2% and 3% respectively to 20% and 10%. Japan flooded India with cotton piece goods and with miscellaneous articles which formerly had been supplied by Germany and Austria. The United States supplied iron and steel work, railway material, motor cars and cycles, and machinery. The post-war course of Indian trade has been erratic. During the year ending March 1920 it was very active. The imports and exports of 1919-20 exceeded in value all previous records, and the balance of trade in favour of India was phenomenally large. Imports amounted to 132,000,000 and ex- ports to 218,000,000. The exports of raw cotton and raw and manufactured jute, tea, oil-seeds and hides were notably large. In the import trade the United Kingdom recovered some of the ground which it had lost during the war, and its share rose from 46 % in 1918-9 to 51 %, the improvement being most marked under the heads of cotton piece goods, iron and steel, railway materials and mill work. Imports from Japan declined and the share of that coun- try of India's imports fell to 9 per cent. In 1920-1 the trading pros- perity of India experienced a serious setback. The foreign demand for Indian produce fell off and values declined in consequence of the severe industrial depression prevailing in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. The power of India's customers to purchase her produce was severely restricted, the export trade came to a standstill, and stocks of many of her commodities, such as hides and tea, accumulated. The import market became seriously overstocked. Encouraged by the high exchange value of the rupee during the winter of 1919-20 and by the great demand of the Indian population for cotton piece goods and other foreign commodities the importing houses placed large orders in the United Kingdom and America. Delays occurred in the execution of these orders, and when the goods reached India the Indian public was in no mood to buy, while the fall in the exchange value of the rupee from 2s. yd. to is. 4d.' placed importers who had not taken the precaution of " covering " exchange in serious difficulties. As a result of these untoward events the unprecedented balance of trade in favour of India in 1919-20 was replaced in 1920-1 by an adverse balance. There is, however, nothing inherently wrong in India's commercial position. A country which is a large producer of important raw commodities, such as wheat and other food grains, jute, cotton, oil-seeds and hides, for which in normal years there is a world-wide demand, should be among the first to feel the effect of restoration of credit and indus- trial revival in the suffering nations of Europe.

From 1908-9, in which year there was a net loss to the State on the railway account in consequence of the failure of the monsoon up to the outbreak of the war, the railways fully participated in the prosperity which a series of good harvests produced. The goods and passenger traffic, the gross and net earnings, and the gain to the State steadily increased. There was a setback in the first year of the war, followed by a great expansion of traffic and earnings. The net profit to the State, after meeting interest, annuity, sinking fund and working charges, was 4,000,000 in 1915-6, 7,500,000 in 1916-7, 10,000,000 in 1917-8, and 11,000,000 in 1918-9. Since 1918-9 in- creased working charges, due to higher wages, greater cost of fuel and heavy outlay on renewals have seriously eaten into the net profit

of the State from the railways. The war placed a great strain on th_ Indian railway system, which, in addition to discharging India's own requirements, had to supply personnel and materials for the construction and working of military railways in Mesopotamia and other theatres of war. The constant movement of troops, and conveyance of supplies, munitions and stores for despatch overseas, caused a great increase of traffic. Ordinary passenger traffic and other civil needs had to give way to essential military requirements, and a central control department had to be created. The railways deteriorated in equipment owing to the scarcity of materials and rolling-stock. Since the war ceased, endeavours have been made to make good these arrears and bring the lines up to the pre-war standard. The 1919-20 budget provided 17,700,000 for capital expenditure, and a still larger sum was provided in 19201.

During the ten years ending 1918-9 the open mileage increased from 31,490 to 36,616. But for the war, and the necessity for apply- ing after the war all available capital to the equipment of open lines, the increase would have been greater. The number of passengers carried on all Indian railways increased from 329,000,000 to 472,- 000,000, and the total weight of goods carried increased from 61,000, ooo to 99,000,000 tons. The total capital outlay incurred by t Government up to the end of 1918-9 in the purchase and constri tion of State lines amounted to 370,000,000. The net t: earnings represent a return of about 5J % on this capital.

The most important line of recent construction is that throu Rajputana from Muttra to Kotah, affording communication betwe .._ northern India and Bombay on the broad-gauge of the Bombay and Baroda system. The bridge across the Ganges at Sara in Bengal is a fine engineering work. It was opened in 1915 and carries the traffic from N. of the river, which was formerly ferried over, without trans-shipment to Calcutta.

The inadequacy of the railways to carry the increasing tra and the scanty accommodation provided for third-class passeng have been the subject of much complaint. The substitution of State for company management, as working leases fall in, is favoured by Indians, chiefly on the ground that under State management their interests are more likely to be consulted and more openings made for them in the higher ranks of the railway service. Manage- ment by companies domiciled in India, on the boards of which In- dians should be represented, has also been advocated. The matter came to a head in 1919 when, under the terms of the lease of the East Indian railway to an English company, the State might have terminated the contract and taken over the management. In deciding to allow the lease to run for a further term of five years the Secretary of State announced his intention of referring the general question of the future management of Indian railways to a com- mittee. The committee (with Sir William Acworth as chairman) was appointed in Oct. 1920 and reported in 1921.

AUTHORITIES. Among books bearing on the period the following may be mentioned: Valentine Chirol, Indian Unrest (rgio); Lovat Fraser, India Under Curzon and After (1912); Chailley, Administrative Problems of British India (1910) ; J. Ramsay Macdonald, The Government of India (1919) ; Gilchrist, Indian Nationality (1920); H.H. the Aga Khan, India in Transition (1918); Sir Verney Lovett, History of the Indian Nationalist Movement (1920); Lord Meston, India at the Cross Ways (1920); L. Curtis, Dyarchy (1920). For constitutional history see Ilbert, Government of India (1915); and for general history Vincent Smith, The Oxford History of India (1919). Lord Morley's Indian Speeches (1909) and his Recollections (1917) are useful for the Minto period. The collected Indian speeches of Lord Minto and those of Lord Hardinge have also been consulted. The annual review or year-book of Indian affairs (Statement Exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India) which the Government of India prepare for submission to Parliament is in its revised form a most useful State paper. The present series started from the year 1918. The Montagu-Chelmsford report on Indian Constitutional Reforms (1918) was published as a Parliamentary paper, as also was the subsequent correspondence regarding if between the Secretary of State and the Government of India. Other Parliamentary papers of special importance are the Proceedings and Report of the Joini Select Committee on the Government of India Bill (1919) ; the further correspondence regarding Constitutional Reform in Burma (1921); the Report of the Hunter Committee on Disturbances in the Punjab (1920), and of the.Esher Committee on The Army in India (1920). For finance the Report of the Indian Currency Committee (1920) and the Financial Statement and Budget of the Government of India for 1920-1 and for 1921-2 should be consulted. With regard to education the Report of the Calcutta University Commission (Calcutta, 1919) is a document of the first importance. (T. W. Ho.)

INDIANA (see 14.421). The pop. in 1920 was 2,930,390, an increase of 229,314, or 8-5% over the 3,700,876 of 1910, as against an increase of 7-3% in the preceding decade. From ninth in rank among the states in 1910 Indiana fell to eleventh in 1920. Of the 92 counties in the state 28 show increases and 64 show decreases. The density in 1920 was 81-3 to the sq. m.; in 1910, 74-9. The urban pop. (in places of over 2,500) was 50-6 of the whole in 1920 as against 42-4% in 1910.