1 REVIEW BY SECTIONS,
2 SULTANPUR SALT
3 WORKS.
4 Stocks, manufacture and
5 sales.
6 REFORT ON THE ADIZINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
7 producing villages, was smaller than in 1892-93. The Hakimicess
8 itself, out.of which the Pachotra allowance is paid, amounted to
9 Rs. 10,968 in 1892-93 and to only Rs. 6,307 in the year under
10 report. The net revenue for the year is less than that for the
11 preceding year by Rs. 1,43,425, or 49°40 per cent. It is also
12 less than the net revenue of 1891-92 and 1890-91 respectively
13 by Rs. 2,73,052 and Rs. 4,29,214, or 65°01 per cent. and 74°50
14 per cent.
15 29. Statistics of stocks, manufacture and sales of salt at
16 the Sultanpur Salt Works for the past four yearsare next dis-
17 played :—
18 Stock at Manufactured : Stock in
19 Year. commencement { during the on Geran hand at the close
20 of the year, year. Ce yeake of the year.
21 Mds. Mads. Mads. Mds.
22 1890-91 a aes 1,01,474 1,90,485 | (a) 2,36,858 | * 55,101
23 1891-92 “ai ae 55,101 1,63,379 (5) 1,75,992 42,488
24 1892-93 tee eee 42,488 92,647 (c) 1,832,708 2,427
25 1893-94 wea "one 2,427 65,082 (a) 66,972 537
26 Mads,
27 (a) Includes wastage ae one 1,363
28 (3) Ditto ave Si 2,447
29 (c) Ditto ie as 8,527
30 (@) Ditto Sik ‘6 504
31 The.stock in hand at the opening of the year was maunds
32 2,427, the manufacture amounted to maunds 65,082, and the
33 sales to maunds.66,972 ; while the stock balance at the close of
34 the year was maunds 537. These figures deserve comparison
35 with those in the same table for previous years as indicating the
36 state at which these salt works have arrived owing to the
37 indebtedness of the salt-makers, the high cost of making the
38 salt, and its indifferent quality after all is said anddone. If there
39 ever was a year when the prosperity of these salt works might
40 have revived, temporarily though it might be, it was the
41 year 1893-94, when Sambhar salt was raised in price from 2%
42 to 8 annas a maund at the lake, and the stock to supply the
43 markets with was perilously scanty. But instead of rising to
44 the occasion, all that the Sultanpur salt source capitalists and
45 manufacturers could do was to raise their selling prices as high
46 as, and sometimes higher than, the Sambhar rates; while,
47 instead of increasing their manufacture, they made only
48 65,082 maunds of salt, or less than when their condition seemed
49 hopeless in 1892-93 by maunds 27,565, and less still than in
50 1891-92 and 1890-91 by a lakh of maunds in one case and a
51 lakh and a quarter of maunds in the other. With proper exer-
52 tions and at fair prices they could have made after the rains of
53 1893 and sold at least two or three lakhs of maunds of salt ;
54 whereas they actually made less and sold only one-half of the
55 quantity got rid of in 1892-93. It is true that the effort would
56 not have done them much lasting good ; for on the 15th of June
57 1894 the price of Sambhar salt was again lowered; this time to
58 4annas per maund. During the year as compared with its
59 predecessor 11 more factories were opened, making a total of
60 53 against 42. In the year 1888-89 there were 238 factories
61 in active operation and 192 in 1889-90. In the next year
62 ‘there was a fall to 84, and a further fall to 67 in 1891-92, |
63 ( 24 )