Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/47

Rh productive, than the privilege of setting up a new Hát or Bázár. Indeed, down to recent times Bázárs were set up by powerful proprietors with the express object of ruining a rival and attracting his buyers and sellers; and many outrages, fights, and affrays and much litigation used to ensue from such proceedings some thirty and forty years ago.

It is no disparagement to the discernment of Cornwallis that he had not such a vivid notion of the interior of a district in Bengal and Behar as was present to the mind of Shore. But it is also clear that Cornwallis had managed to grasp successfully some of the main points in the agricultural and revenue system of the Province and that, as before stated, he did not by any means intend to hand over the whole agricultural and village community to the superior landlords to be dealt with by them on the terms of contract and under the economic laws of demand and supply. To prove this we have only to read carefully his Minutes and Regulations. He was in favour of multiplying smaller proprietors, as he was of opinion that their management was better. He conceded to some smaller Tálukdárs the privilege of payment of revenue direct to the Government Treasury instead of through the superior Zamíndár. Such estates in revenue phraseology were called Huzúrí in contradistinction to Shikmí Táluks.

He laid down the principle that a Zamíndár could only receive the customary or established rent, and