ORISSA'S ECONOMY IN THE 19TH CENTURY 33 steady growth in numbers., mostly in lowland Orissa. Between 1822 and 1872 about 30 per cent of the land had been brought under cultivation.4 Outlay on civil administration increased according to Hunter's estimates, from Rs 9,15,504 in 1829-30 to Rs 15,51,056 in 1860-61 in Cuttack.8 Hunter's contention was to show that the government spent the whole amount of land revenue in maintaining the civil administration. With increased public spending, prices, wages and land values had gone up, leading to depreciation of the silver currency. The ^watchman-ship" policy of the government was typified in the higher expenditure for the police, jails and the judiciary; irrigation, embankments and other flood control devices accounted for a minor share. Rainfall in Orissa averaged 62-| inches per annum but its early cessation was fatal to the rice crop. The channels of numerous rivers were insufficient to carry off the great volume of flood water fed by heavy rains in the tablelands of Ghota Nagpur and the Central Provinces. It appears that a huge flood in 1836 and a severe drought in 1840 caused a rocketing price spiral in 1837 and 1840. The flood control system in the 1870s was constituted by 913 miles of government embankments with irrigational channels of which 110 miles were classed as capital embankments and 79 miles as agricultural.6 Benevolence or Exploitation? Rapid immigration and rising living standards gave rise to a demand for consumer goods and foodstuffs. There was also a new urge for English education. In 1835 the Pooree School was opened.7 In 1848-49 there were about nine schools with a total attendance of 279 pupils. In the next 10 years the numbers had increased to 29 schools with 1046 pupils. The government constructed the Jagannath Road and erected saraiy (night shelters) and dharmasalas (inns) for temporary accommodation of the pilgrims. It was also proposed that the civil surgeon stationed at Guttack set up a temporary clinic at Puri to attend to the pilgrims at festival time. The zamindars were ordered to plant shady fruit trees along the roads.9 State action to provide facilities was accompanied by imperceptible changes in the provincial economy. There was the rise in prices of salt and i ice and other consumer goods. Leaving out of account the two exceptional years, 1837 and 1840, the decade following the last settlement witnessed a price rice of 48.14 per cent. With the decline of the purchasing power of silver currency, the money wages of urban labour had risen by more than one-third while all wages in kind remained the same.1 ° With increased availability of manpower in the villages owing to spectacular population growth, the demand for the pahi-kasht (temporary lease-hold tenure at lower rate of rent compared to khus-kasht ryots on the permanent tenure basis) ryots tapered off, particularly in the Garhjat (quit-rent paying) hilly lands and in the coastal belt, as the nimki mahals •(salt-producing tracts or lands kept separate for salt manufacture) were