1 REFORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
2 yin 8 districts of the Punjab there was no fall in prices in
3 the first fortnight after the reduction of duty, but in the second
4 fortnight the prices fell by amounts varying from 15 chattaks
5 to 3 sers in all the districts of the Province except Kangra.
6 In this district also the rate has since fallen from 11 to 12
7 sers, Inthe United Provinces of Agra and Oudh there was no
8 fall in prices during the first fortnight after the reduction of
9 duty in 21 districts, and in 13 districts there was no fall
10 fora month. In all but 3 of these districts, however, prices
11 have subsequently fallen, In 24 districts prices fell in the
12 first fortnight by amounts varying from 4 chattaks to 2 sers,
13 and in most of these districts there has since been a further fall.
14 In Behar there was a fall of 13 to 2 sers in prices in 4 districts
15 within a month of the reduction of duty, and in 3 districts
16 there was nochange. In these latter districts, however, the
17 prices have since fallen, though in 2 of the 7 districts in which
18 prices at first fell they have again risen. In the Punjab the
19 trade in rock salt is in a satisfactory state; the principal
20 source of supply is within the Province, and direct dealing
21 with the mines without the intervention of capitalist middle-
22 men is well established. If the Simlaand Kangra hill districts,
23 and Delhi and the 4 other districts in the south-east which
24 are supplied mainly with Rajputana salt, be omitted, the
25 average retail price for the rest of the Province according to
26 these price currents on the 15th March 1903 was 12 sers 13
27 chattaks, and on the 15th April, 15 sers 1 chattak, the fall
28 amounting to 2 sers 4 chattaks. The United Provinces
29 and the Central Provinces are further from the sources
30 of supply; and the trade in Rajputana salt, which is the salt
31 principally used in the United Provinces, is largely in the
32 hands of capitalists who are better able to combine and
33 keep up prices. The Central Provinces are supplied mainly
34 with Bombay and Madras salt, and I am unable to speak
35 from personal knowledge as to the ‘circumstances of the trade
36 in these Provinces or in Behar; but considering the distance
37 that salt has to be carried, especially in the Central Provinces,
38 the prices appear to have fallen with satisfactory promptitude.
39 In the Punjab the fall in the average retail price per maund
40 up to the 5th July amounted to 8 annas 2 piese in the
41 United Provinces to 6 annas 5 pies, in the Central Provinces
42 to 6 annas 1 pie and in Behar to 6 annas and to pies. It
43 must, however, be admitted that the prices quoted in these
44 price currents are standards only, and that purchases of salt,
45 though they may be influenced by the standards, are not
46 invariably regulated by them. Mr. Buckley, Assistant Com-
47 missioner, recently found three distinct gates of retail prices
48 in Delhi, one in the market, a higher rate in shops doing a
49 good business in the main thoroughfare, and a still higher
50 rate in shops in the back streets. It is sometimes said that
51 the Indian peasant does not buy salt, or buys itin such infini-
52 tesimal quantities that it is a ptactical impossibility that a
53 reduction in the duty of 8 annas a maund can filter down
54 sufficiently to influence the transaction. This, however, is
55 only partly true. It is the case that the wayfarer, day labourer
56 or domestic servant in Upper India, who goes to a banian’s
57 shop for his daily ration, customarily receives with the ration
58 salt sufficient to season it, and that for salt thus supplied no
59 separate payment is made. . Transactions of this kind natur-
60 ally come frequently under the observation of European resi+
61 dents of the country, but over the greater part of the country
62 they are the exception rather than the rule. The Indian
63 peasant ordinarily purchases salt for the consumption of him.
64 4 ) :