animal value of manufactures, would not average more than forty shillings (ten dollars) per head for the entire population.[1] As compared with Egypt, the situation in India has this marked difference—namely, that whereas in the former country the extreme poverty of its rural population—the fellahs—has not been due to any lack of fertile land, or any incapacity on their part for obtaining from it a comfortable subsistence with continued betterments in condition, but owing to the fact that they have from time immemorial been deprived of the control of the fruits of their labors; while in India the population is increasing so rapidly—especially under the conditions of peace which have been attendant on British rule—and so disproportionately to the amount of new and fertile soil that can be appropriated, as to leave but little margin, under existing methods of cultivation, for increasing the moans of subsistence for the people. In fact, the "Malthusian theory" is completely exemplifying itself in India, which is densely populated, destitute in a great degree of roads and of the knowledge and use of machinery.[2]
In a debate in the British House of Commons on the Indian budget, in August, 1894, Mr. S. Keay, an ex-official of the Indian Government, stated that in 1892 "he had a census taken of five villages in the presidency of Bombay. The population was 236. These five villages farmed 1,400 acres, the gross crop of which was valued at £193. If a starvation support of 14 shillings a year were allowed to each of the 236 persons and 11 shillings a year for each pair of bullocks kept to till the farm, the net produce of the five villages amounted to £5 for the year. Yet in the same year they paid to the inland revenue £73, and the village books showed that it was done by borrowing from the usurers at 24 per cent."
Mr. Keay further stated that "about seven years ago the Director-General of Statistics for all India published a book in which he stated that 40,000,000 of the people of India habitually went through life on an insufficiency of food. The Government of India wanted to be able to deny the statement, and they sent a con-
- ↑ Resources of modern Commerce. A. J. Wilson. Longmans, London, 1878, vol. i, p. 57. Taxation in India. Shoshee Chunder Dutt, Justice of the Peace, Calcutta.
- ↑ Under the old-time system of native rulers, frequent wars, consequent on foreign invasions and internal race antagonisms, with accompanying famines and epidemic diseases, materially restricted the growth of the population of India. But under the conditions of peace that have been attendant during the last half century of British rule, the population of India has increased so rapidly that the limits of the agricultural capacity of the country, and the consequent means of subsistence for its people, seem to be approaching exhaustion; and one extraordinary drain upon the revenues of the Government in later years has been due to the wise creation of a national famine fund, to be U5ed in cases of periodical emergencies due to failure of the crops, for the relief of multitudes who would otherwise perish by starvation.
