Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/476

 454 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL oils--preparing fibres packing and pressing bulky goods manu- facturing sugar is procurable even h remote districts. The farmer in India enjoys a season when most of the operations of agriculture are at a standstill, and then uses his cattle and carts to lead to market such part of his produce as the factor does not buy on the farm. Competition is keen and prices have been equalized to an extent that would thirty years ago have been thought incredible. Besides these considerations, a method of 'grouping' villages obtains in current settlements, by whose application rates are reduced all round in the villages to which comparatively lenient treatment is accorded. This is practically a device for reconciling Theory (the Government claim to half the net produce)with Practice (the acceptance of a customary pay- ment) by making excessive allowances several times over. We may next consider the soundness of a valuation for rating purposes of lands in terms of the cereals producible thereon. The holder pays the rent charge by the sale of a part of the produce, and it is not far from the truth to say that the cereals which the South Indian farmer produces are the part of his crop which he does not sell. The assessment is paid not out of the price of food grain sold, but mainly out of the price of the raw material of manufactures of tobacco, of vegetables, of pulse. Let us glance at the course of seaborne external trade h Madras of late years, and note the exports of the products of agriculture. The profits of the great crop of coffee are not for the Hindu farmer, nor is he a grower of tea, cinchona, or cocoa to any considerable extent: only in Malabar and Canara are the returns from spices, cocoa- nuts, coir, and copra of the first importance; ground nut, dye stuffs, areca nut, betel vine, turmeric, ginger, and fruit are pro- ducts of special localities. A v/ew of the average annual exports by sea of a few selected staples during three periods will illustrate the character of the trade of the generation. The quantities sent northwards and north-westwards by land have of course been continually on the increase as railways have been opened. I exclude the figures for 1866-67 (when a change in the period treated of in the annual returns introduced an element of con- fusion) and for 1877-78 (when the whole course of trade was deranged by the great famine, from whose effects the late census shows such a remarkable recovery). The second per/od gives an average 65 per cent. greater than the first. The third period gives an average 82 per cent. greater than the second. The figure given is the annual average for the period of the seaborne export of each commodity in rupees.