Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/63

 BANDA. Doab

District with the

53

are probably sufficient to avert the extremity

of famine.

Commerce and Trade. has

river, is

— Banda,

The Jumna

trade.

little

is

though a poor agricultural its

main

The B^nda

a considerable port of entry.

well

known

The

other principal exports are

commerce

in

The Ken

and

artery,

by

to be called flax,

cotton

is

District,

on that

sufficiently

name. and other

prefix as a trade

its

gram,

Chilla,

millets, wheat,

and tobacco. The traffic owing to the shrinking of the river in the dry season. Manufactured articles are, for the most part, sold at the country fairs, none of which, however, are of any great importance. Coarse cotton cloth and copper utensils are made in the District for home use. Polished pebbles, found in the Ken, and cut into knife handles, brooches, seal-rings, and other ornamental articles, are exported in considerable quantities. There are several quarries in the southern hill country, which export durable sandstone for ornamental architecture, and other stone for metalling roads and for railway purposes. Iron is also found, and worked by companies of blackThe Jabalpur (Jubbulpore) branch of the East Indian Railsmiths.

grains.

on the

chief imports are rice, sugar,

is

small,

way has a

length of about 47 miles in the District, with three stations Bargarh, Manikpur, and Markundi. Manikpur is connected with

at

the town of

Banda by a road of 59|- miles long and as it is often impassable



but as only a small

goods during the by the well-metalled road to Chilla (24 miles) and thence across the Jumna to Fatehpur station on the East Indian main line. There are 586 miles of roads in the District. All of them, however, except that from Banda to Chilli, need No institutions of any importance exist, and there are improvement. no newspapers or printing-presses in the District. portion

is

metalled,

rainy season,

traffic

Administration

.

proceeds

— The

chiefly

District suffered

century from over-taxation.

for

Under

much

in the earlier part of the

the Maratha Government, the State

whole possible out-turn of each village. On whole District, in 1806, the land revenue amounted to .;;^i3o,305, and in 1814 to ^146,454. These In 1815, the land assessments were not considered exorbitant. revenue was raised to ;;^i92,i22, and again, in 1819, to ^^203, 650. This demand was met, but only by payments out of capital and the In 1825, the result was soon seen in a general decrease of prosperity. assessment was reduced to ^187,890; but the effects of the previous excessive demands, the spread of the kdns weed, and a series of bad

demand amounted

the

first

to the

British Settlement of the



harvests,

combined

to

impoverish Banda.

From

that period to the

Mutiny, the assessments, in spite of many fluctuations, were generally somewhat heavier than the District could bear. On the reoccupation after the

Mutiny,

it

was necessary to make a considerable reduction.