"تقرير عن إدارة رئاسة بومباي لسنة ١٨٨١-١٨٨٢" [ظ‎‎١‎١‎٧] (٥٨٩/٢٣٩)

Chap. IV.
166
BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION REPORT. [1881-82.
PRODUCTION
and distri
bution,
Prices.
Wages.
for desert crops and fields beyond tbe reach of irrigation. The
river rose gradually and remained at a high level without causing
disastrous floods and theresult has been a most exceptional season
W a nlentiful harvest, except perhaps m Hyderabad, where the
heavy September rain damaged the standing crops. In Thar and
Parkar although, tho season was so unusually favourable, fever
prostrated numbers of the inhabitants, and the labourers who
usually come in for the harvest either did not come at all or could
T-v /-\ n n o /’'I *
The succession of good harvests with which the country has
been blessed, has caused a continued fall in the price of produce.
The damage caused to the kharif by unseasonable rain was
reflected in a general rise in the market prices during the rains
of 1881, but the seasonable later rain and the exceptional produc
tiveness of the rabi harvest had a marked effect upon prices, and
they fell to a lower level than has been reached for many years.
In Kaladgi jowari could be bought at 42 sers for the rupee and
wheat at 26 sers, and in Sholapur jowari could be purchased at
38 sers for the same money. In Ratnagiri the price of harik,
which is a local product, fell about 16 per cent., the price of rice
declined by 20 per cent., and the commoner grains such as nachni
by 24 to 40 per cent., and, in short, the general level of prices was
such as has not been known since 1862. Salt, too, was somewhat
cheaper since the reduction of duty. The cheapness of the rabi
crops re-acted upon the kharif and checked the rise of prices,
and in some cases even caused a decline. In Sind the price
of jowari fell heavily, and it could be bought in Shikarpur at
27 sers for a rupee and in Karachi at 20 sers. Bajri was sold at
23 sers for a rupee and wheat at 13 sers. The cessation of the
war demand has, it is said, also affected prices.
Wages are not liable to change much in a country where almost
all the unskilled labour and a part also of the skilled labour is
paid by grain. It is only in the large towns and on public works
that cash payments are in use, and the wage-receiving class
has benefited greatly by the fall in the price of grain. Except
in Thana, where it is said the wages of skilled labour have fallen
by four annas per diem, no decline is noted in the money payments;
< ^ ei:riari( ^ ^ or labour caused by the new railways
and the works in Bijapur and by a local demand for digging tanks
has caused a small increase in cash payments. The new railway
a so a ected the rate of wages in Dhdrwar towards the close of
e year, whilst in Ahmednagar they declined slightly owing to the
stoppage of railway works. ' J j *