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2 travelled, or to submit to incessant inconvenience and detention. He
3 was thus subject to constant loss of time, or money, or both; and the
4 merchants were ‘unable to. calculate, either the time which their goods
5 would take to reach a particular spot, or the expenses which would
6 attend their carriage.
7 6. In the midst of all this mass of fraud and confusion, it might
8 have been hoped that some care would have been taken to protect the
9 productions of the Circar’s own dominions; but so far was this from
10 being the case, that there were many instances in which they were made
11 to pay more highly than those of other countries.
12 7. Even as to the Cowls-which certain merchants enjoyed, there
13 were perplexing differences in the way in which the deductions were
14 calculated. With some it was a fixed per-centage to be deducted from
15 the proper rate to be levied ; while with others the full rate was taken,
16 but only on a certain fixed proportion of the goods.
17 8. Another fertile source of confusion and corruption was that, to
18 gratify some particular izardars, certain merchants, and certain produc-
19 tions were confined to particular routes ; and, if they travelled or were
20 carried by another line of custom-houses, the Izardars of that line were
21 made to pay compensation for the loss presumed to have been sustained
22 by the renters of the preséribed line.
23 9. When it is considered that there was hardly a luxury, certainly
24 not a necessary of life, which was not subject to pay duty to the autho-
25 rities of these seven hundred and sixty-one Sayer Chowkies, and
26 that some of these duties were payable daily, some monthly, and some
27 annually; while there were others of items which involved the ne-
28 ‘eessity of a prying scrutiny into the most private and delicate domestic
29 occurrences, it may be imagined that the system was calculated to
30 interfere constantly with the comfort and the interests of every por-
31 ‘tion of the population. It is possible indeed that it may have been
32 framed originally ‘with some such idea, for a legend current in Mysore
33 assigns the palm of wisdom among monarchs to a prince who invented
34 three hundred and sixty-five taxes, each leviable on its own particular
35 ‘day, go that no twenty-four hours could pass without the idea of the
36 ‘prince’s power having been brought home to each of his subjects in the
37 most unmistakeable way.
38 10. Great as was the direct annoyance to the people, the indirect,
39 py the obstacles thrown in the way of trade, became still greater, In