"no province had any separate power of legislation, any Separate financial resources, or practically any power of creating or modifying any appointments in the public Service; and the references to the Government of India which this last restriction involved gave that Government the opportunity of interference with all the details of provincial administration."[1]
Whatever may have been the merits of the Imperial System of Government from the military, political, legislative, or administrative points of view, it is a melancholy fact that as a system of finance it proved unequal to the strain imposed upon it. From its very start it suffered from the fatall disease of financial inadequacy, and it was only occasionally that the efforts of the Finance Ministers were successful in restoring an equilibrium and staving off the hour of crisis. How chronic the deficits were may be seen from the following figures:—[2]
| Insuffciency of Imperial Finances | |||||
| Year. | Surplus. | Deficit. | Year. | Surplus. | Deficit. |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| 1834–35 | — | 194,477 | 1846–47 | — | 971,322 |
| 35–36 | 1,441,513 | — | 47–48 | — | 1,911,986 |
| 36–37 | 1,248 994 | — | 48–49 | — | 1,473,225 |
| 37–38 | 780,318 | — | 49–50 | 354,187 | — |
| 38–39 | — | 381,787 | 50–51 | 415,443 | — |
| 39–40 | — | 2,138,713 | 51–52 | 531,265 | — |
| 40–41 | — | 1,754,852 | 52–53 | 424,957 | — |
| 41–2 | — | 1,771,603 | 53–54 | — | 2,044,117 |
| 42–43 | — | 1,346,011 | 54–55 | — | 1,707,364 |
| 43–44 | — | 1,440,259 | 55—56 | — | 972,791 |
| 44–45 | — | 743,893 | 56–57 | — | 143,597 |
| 45–46 | — | 1,496,865 | 57–58 | — | 7,864,222 |
Anyone who ponders upon this pitiable story of India Finance as revealed by these deficits can hardly fail to
