Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/486

 142 THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — INDIA AND DEPENDENCIES parts of the provinces of Bengal, the North-West Provinces and Oudh. A few thousand acres of opium are grown in the Punjab for local consumption. In the monopoly districts, the cultivator receives advances from Government to enable him to prepare the land for the crop, and he is bound to sell the whole of the produce at a fixed price to Government agents, by whom it is de- spatched to the Government factories at Patna and Ghazipur to be prepared for the market. The chests of manufactured opium are sold by auction in Calcutta at monthly sales for export to China. A reserve is kept in hand to supply the deficiencies of bad seasons, and a small quantity is used by the Indian excise departments. Opium is also grown in many of the Native States of Rajputana and Central India. These Native States have agreed to conform to the British system. They levy heavy duties on opium exported from their territories for the China market, and such opium pays the Indian Treasury a duty which has been recently fixed at Rx. 52*5 per chest when the pass is granted at Ajmere and at Rx. 50, when it is grauted elsewhere. The gross annual revenue derived from opium averaged during each of the ten years 1888 to 1899 the sum of Rx. 7,703,007, and the average net receipts during the same period, Rx. 5,670,903. In 1855-58 the net opium revenue averaged only Rx. 4,580,000, The largest branch of expenditure is that for the army, which cost Rx. 13,000,000 in the year before the great mutiny ; and 28,086,495 (in- cluding Rx. 11,368,489 for Afghanistan) in 1880-81. For recent years the army expenditure is shown in the following table ; —

Year ended March 31 — Year ended March 31 — 1893 1894 1895 Rx. 23,419,111 23,253,597 24,096,091 1896 1897 1898 Rx. 25,398,157 24,255,338 27,073,100

The Budget estimate for 1898-99 is Rx. 25,055,900. The following table shows the amount (in tens of rupees) of the debt of British India, both bearing and not bearing interest, distinguishing the debt in India and in Great Britain, in each of the financial years 1888 and 1891-97 :

Year ended Periiiaiient Debt reniianent Debt Unfunded Debt Total March 31 in India in England in India Rx. Rx. Rx. Rx. 1888 98,089,862 84,140,148 9,715,834 191,945,844 1891 102,746,555 104,408,208 11,271,306 218,426,069 1892 102,692,317 107,404,143 12,170,666 222,267,126 1893 102,937,552 106,683,767 13,134,568 222,755,887 1894 105,546,078 108,113,792 13,694,528 227,354,398 1895 104,373,740 114,005,826 13,907,320 232,286,886 1896 103,788,928 113,903,732 14,646,368 232,339,028 1897 109,115,053 113,883,233 14,326,874 237,325,160