Page:The Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India.djvu/39

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THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM
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and the Moturpha,[1] and other oppressive taxes[2] continued to harass the industrious poor. It is indeed true that many petty and vexatious taxes prevalent under the native rule were abolished; there is, however, enough evidence to show that the revenue thus lost was made up by enhancing those that were continued to be levied, particularly the land tax. The latter charge has always been officially denied,[3] but none the less it remains true that the land tax has been consolidated and increased concurrently with, if not consequently upon, the abolition of such other taxes as being raised from the poor cost the Government more than their yield.

Under the injurious revenue system described above, the taxing capacity of the people decayed so that not-

  1. In a petition drawn up by the Madras Native Association to the House of Commons in 1858 it was described as "a tax on trades and occupations embracing weavers, carpenters, all workers in metals, all salesmen whether possessing shops which are also taxed separately, or vending by the road-side, etc., some paying imposts on their tools, others for permission to sell, extending to the most trifling articles of trade, and the cheapest tools the mechanics can employ, the cost of which is frequently exceeded six times over by the Moturpha, under which the use of them is permitted." Quoted oy Raghuvaiyangar in his Progress of the Madras Presidency, 1893, p. 113.
  2. Dr. Francis Buchanan in his Journey from Madras, Vol. II, notes that “at Sati-Mangalam in Coimbatore, South India, a new stamp duty of ¾ + ⅓ of a Vir-Raya Fanam, or about 5¼d., has been levied on every two pieces of fine cloth ; and of 3 + ¾/8 of a Vir-Raya Fanam, or of about 2¾d., on every two pieces of coarse cloth. The weavers in consequence have given up work, and gone in a body to the collector, to represent their case. The tax is levied in place of a duty of 4 or 5 Fanams a year, that was formerly levied on every loom; by the weavers it is considered as heavier"—pp. 240–1. He also notes "at Dodara Pallyam which contains 50 houses of weavers, the weavers are quite clamorous about the new stamp duty; which, they say, will for every loom cost them 20 Fanams in place of 5 which they formerly paid." Ibid., p. 242.
  3. Parliamentary Papers, Vol. V of 1831, Minutes of Evidence on the East India Company's affairs, Q. 3864–66.