LOANS, PRICES, WAGES, MANUFACTURES, MARKETS & FAIR TRADE & COMMUNICATIONS

History.

223. Prior to 1853 when Berar came under British administration, the information about prices is meagre and valueless, though there is an elaborate calculation on page 254 of the old Berar Gazetteer which fixes the price of juari (the staple food grain) in the seventeenth century at 160 to 200 lbs. for the rupee. In the same volume (page 270-271) there is a table giving the prices of various crops at three different periods since the Assignment; this is here reproduced, the figures representing seers per rupee.

Thus juari and wheat which together covered at settlement about 48 per cent, of the cropped area had in the interval from 1853 to 1870 risen 266 per cent, and 320 per cent, in price respectively. The next period is that from the original settlement 1869-1873 to the Revision in 1897-1900. To get a common basis of comparison for all taluks we may take the twenty years from 1876 to 1895 and subdivide this into four quinquennial periods. The prices of juari and wheat were as follows:—

Quantity sold per rupee in seers and decimals or a seer during the period of:—

Thus with an interval of cheapness from 1881-1890 the commonest food grains were selling at about the same price in 1895 as in 1876. In the next five years the District was afflicted with two severe famines, those of 1897 and 1900, in which years the prices of cereals stood as follows:—

Quantity in seers sold per rupee.

Since 1901 the prices have been steady at between 16.21 seers of juari and 9.12 seers wheat per rupee, except in years such as 1908 when the crops have been unusually poor. The present prices of food grains are as follows:—

A factor which has had much to do with the rise in price of food grains has been the large increase in cotton cultivation resulting not merely in a general cheapening of money (cotton being a commercial crop) but also in a special dearness of cereals which have thus been ousted from their proper place in the annual harvest. In 1907 Major Hors brugh remarked. ' The amount of juari sown is at present quite insufficient for food and fodder. Cotton-growing is the fashion of the day and the rotation of crops is much disregarded. Time and the land itself will teach the cultivators a lesson.' Perhaps the recent decrease in cotton crops may be taken as showing that the cultivators are already learning that lesson.

Prices of cotton.

224. Cotton, however, is and is likely to remain the characteristic wealth-producing industry of the District; and the price obtainable for cotton is of paramount importance to every one in the plains of Berar. There is some discrepancy between the figures furnished by the Bombay chamber and those resulting from local enquiries, but it may be assumed that the former are more correct. The difference between the price of cotton in Berar and in Bombay is about Rs. 36 per Bombay khandi of 784 lbs. The average Bombay price of cleaned Berar cotton from 1869 to 1878 was Rs. 230 per khandi, from 1878-1888 Rs. 203, and from 1888-1898 Rs. 190. The local prices for the separate taluks gathered at the Revision settlement from shopkeepers and others are as follows:—

The accuracy of the figures for Morsi and Daryapur is open to considerable doubt. In the other taluks the fall is explained in part by the general tenour of the world's markets but partly also by the gradual substitution in Berar of a coarse but prolific type of cotton for a finer but less productive. The cotton of Dhamangaon market which is brought largely from the uplands of Yeotmal, where the longer stapled plant is still grown, finds a ready sale in Bombay at slightly higher prices than that of Amraoti, and unscrupulous dealers have sometimes sent cotton from Amraoti to Bombay via Dhamangaon for the sake of securing the mark of that place on the bales.

The volume on Prices and Wages in India gives the average annual wholesale prices in rupees per 10 maunds of cotton. These 10 Bengal maunds or about 820 lbs. are very roughly equivalent to a Bombay khandi of 784 lbs. In 1897 the price was only Rs. 145, but it fell steadily till 1900 when it suddenly rose to Rs. 187. Again in the two following years there was a decline, but in 1903 prices rose by about 20 per cent. and in 1904 they reached their highest watermark, Rs. 222. In the year 1908-1909 the price of Amraoti cotton in Bombay was Rs. 240.[ Very much higher prices were reached and maintained for long periods in the current year 1909-1910.] In the local markets the cotton is sold uncleaned (in which State it is known as kapas) by a kapas khandi of 560 lbs. Prices for this in 1908-1909 show Rs. 52-53 for the first picking and Rs. 35-40 for the last.

Miscellaneous articles.

225. There is nothing of particular interest in the prices of less important produce. Ten maunds of linseed were sold for Rs. 34—Rs. 38 in 1897-98-99, but rose to Rs. 64 in 1902. Two years later there was a return to the old level, but the present price (1904) is again high (Rs. 50—52-8). Til has fluctuated between Rs. 35 and Rs. 56 per 10 maunds, Standing at present at about the latter figure; while ghi has risen from Rs. 289 in 1897 to Rs. 380-400, the price in Amraoti in 1907-08. Owing to the Singhast period and the consequent falling off of demand for this commodity at marriage merry-makings the price of 1908-1909 is almost as low as in 1897. Tobacco which has been subject to considerable fluctuations Stands now at a wholesale price of Rs. 200 per 10 maunds, almost the highest figure known. Salt has cheapened from 8 seers a rupee in 1870 to 16-18 seers to-day, a very satisfactory fall. Karbi (juäri stalks) at present sells at Rs. 5-6 and grass for As. 10—12 per 100 bundles shortly after harvest, though the prices rise very considerably in the hot weather. Oil, whether til, linseed or kardi, fetches As. 8 the seer, and firewood is priced at an average of R. 1-12 to Rs. 2 per cartload of roughly 20 katcha maunds of 28 lbs. a piece. Of live stock a cow ranges from Rs. 10 to Rs. 40 and a she-buffalo from Rs. 50 to Rs. 125.