AGRICULTURE AND REVENUE 263

show a marked decrease, the diminution amounting to
about two millions and a half.
But figures such as these do very little towards
illustrating the growth of wealth or of general economic
development in India. The growth of population, whether
by natural progression or by the extension of British rule,
may counteract the effects of increased material prosperity,
and the problem whether India is virtually richer and its
people more contented is not to be solved by any reference
to statistics independent of personal observation. Where
wide divergence of opinion exists on this subject it is
usually due to want of such observation.
The ryot, or agriculturist, who represents the vast
majority of the Indian population, is, as we have already
said, lightly treated in the matter of direct taxation. Referring
 back to the last half century, Sir John Strachey
writes that “the immense growth of the revenues has
been in no degree due to increased taxation. If .. . we
compare the revenues of British India in 1886 with those
of twenty-five years before, we shall find that almost
under every head there has been a diminution rather than
an increase in the public burdens. The land revenue . . .
is everywhere lighter than it was. The salt duties were
generally higher than they are now. Heavy customs
duties were levied in the former period on every article of
import and export, whereas there is now almost absolute
freedom of trade.” This was written in 1886, and now
requires some modification, especially as regards the salt
tax, which has, in some parts of India, increased, but is
still far lower than it was twenty-five years ago. As
regards the chief support of Indian finance, the land
revenue, Sir John Strachey quotes Fawcett and Mill in
support of his opinion that the rent of land cannot be
regarded as a tax on the people when claimed by Government,
 any more than it would represent a tax if paid to
any private landlord ; and he shows that the share of the
rent claimed by Government has decreased enormously
under British rule. The Moghul Government took onethird
 of the land produce, and believed themselves to be