India

The Empire of India is bounded on the north by the Himalaya Mountains and spurs therefrom, on the east by the Bay of Bengal, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the west by the Arabian Sea and a boundary line which separates it from Beloochistan and Afghanistan. The Afghanistan frontier has been in course of rectification for some time past, and the actual boundary cannot be stated yet with any degree of accuracy. The territory lies between 8° and 36° of north latitude, and 66½° and 92½° east longitude. A large portion of this vast territory was first acquired by the British East India Company, and was governed by a board, in London, through a governor-general resident in India. The first governor, Mr. Warren Hastings, was appointed in 1772. Wars with the rulers of the numerous independent Indian states resulted in the gradual annexation of those states, and their being brought under British rule.

The present form of government was established in 1858, since when all the territories heretofore under the government of the East India Company have been vested in Her Majesty, and all its powers are exercised in her name. All revenues, tributes, and other payments are disposed of for the government of India only.

By Act 39 and 40 Victoriæ, cap. 10, proclaimed at Delhi on 1st January, 1877, the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland assumed the additional title of Empress of India.

The executive authority is vested in a governor-general, or viceroy, appointed by the crown, and acting under the orders of the Secretary of State for India. The governor-general has power to make laws for all persons—British, natives, or foreigners—within the Indian territories under British dominion, and for all subjects of the crown within the dominions of Indian princes and states in alliance with Her Majesty.

The salary of the governor-general is £25,000 per annum, besides allowances, £12,000.

In the budget estimates for 1878-9 the revenue was assessed at £64,562,000, and the ordinary expenditure at £65,917,000, leaving a deficit of £1,355,000. Besides the ordinary expenditure, £3,500,000 was set down as extraordinary expenditure for public works, raising the total deficit to £4,855,000. The provisional budget estimates for 1879-80 fixed the revenue at £64,620,000, and the expenditure at £65,950,000, including £2,000,000 for the expenses of the Afghan war. The excess of ordinary expenditure over revenue in the budget of 1879-80 was estimated at £1,395,000, and the capital expenditure on productive public works at £3,500,000.

Land is the most important source of public revenue to which rulers in India have, in all ages, looked for obtaining their income, and in the year before the mutiny the land furnished more than one-half of the total receipts of the East India Company's treasury. It now forms two-fifths of the total receipts of the empire. The proportion which the assessment bears to the full value of the land varies greatly in the several provinces and districts of India; the native system was to take a fixed proportion of the gross produce, but the British system ordinarily deals with the net produce, or the surplus after deducting expenses of cultivation.

The income from the opium monopoly ranks next in importance to the land revenue. The gross revenue derived from opium averaged during the ten years 1869 to 1878, £8,500,000. Salt follows next with a ten years' average revenue of £6,113,257.

The amount of the public debt of India, including that incurred in Great Britain, was £59,943,814 on 30th April, 1857. This had increased on 31st March, 1878, to £134,631,553; but there were also treasury notes and bills, service funds, and savings-bank balances to the amount of £12,053,217, bringing the total liabilities up to £146,684,770. The total annual interest on debt and obligations amounted to £5,028,318 in the financial year 1877-78.

The currency of India is chiefly silver. The total of the money coined annually is large, and amounted in 1878 to £16,344,553. Of that total there was £16,180,326 in silver; £15,636 in gold; £148,591 in copper.

In 1861 an Act was passed by the Indian Government providing for the issue of a paper currency by means of promissory notes. The issue is regulated in seven descriptions of notes, varying from 10,000 rupees^*, or £1000, to 5 rupees, or 10s. The total amount of the notes in circulation on 31st March, 1877, was £11,641,654. There are 10 currency circles, the headquarters of which are at Calcutta, Allahabad, Lahore, Nagpore, Madras, Calicut, Cocanada, Bombay, Kurrachee, and Akolah.

India abounds in an immense variety of timber of valuable quality, and capable of being used for every purpose. Its coal-beds are of enormous extent, and the coal is of good quality. Indigo is a most important crop, as are tea, coffee, jute, rice, wheat, sugar, cinchona, and an endless variety of plants known in the materia medica. It produces vast quantities of salt, saltpetre, various gums and lac. Opium and salt are Government monopolies; and rice, wheat, barley, millet, and maize afford a vast yield. Gold of the best quality is said to exist in Southern India, and the renowned Golconda is not yet exhausted of diamonds, and it is rich in precious stones, such as rubies and amethysts. India also produces a vast quantity of valuable vegetable oils used in cookery, medicine, for burning, and the toilet. The principal vegetable oils are extracted from cocoanut, mustard-seed, the castor seed, til seed (Sesamum Indicum), and other substances, including, of course, linseed, which is, commercially, the most important of all; likewise fibres; besides hemp and flax, there is a host of other plants capable of being worked into cloth, matting, cordage, &c., such as grasses, sedges, liliaceous plants—even plantains, palms, and pineapples.

At the last Paris Exhibition India contributed by far the largest collection of her almost unbounded natural products, timber and wood included, as well as tea, sugar, coffee, and spices, and other tropical productions, that has ever been exhibited.

The imports of bullion and specie into India are mainly from the United Kingdom and from China, while the exports are shipped principally to the United Kingdom, Ceylon, China, and South Africa.

The staple article of export from India to the United Kingdom is raw cotton, but the quantities, and still more the value, of the exports have been greatly on the decrease within the last 10 years. In 1869, the export was 4,284,334 cwt., valued at £18,342,887; while in 1878, it was only 1,433,104 cwt., valued at £3,513,595. The trade revived greatly last year.

Next to cotton, the most important articles of export from India to the United Kingdom, in 1878, were—jute, 4,232,320 cwt., valued at £3,229,519; rice, 5,780,935 cwt., £2,969,043; flax and linseed, 1,027,449 qrs., £2,602,196; tea, 35,420,059 lb., £2,793,247; untanned hides, 344,875 cwt., £1,095,603.

The chief articles of British produce imported into India are cotton goods and iron. These were to the value of £15,078,497 in 1878, of which the iron was valued at £1,767,526. The value of exports to Australia and New Zealand from India is comparatively trifling, considering the large populations in the provinces of Australasia. The principal exports consist of raw and manufactured fibres, drugs, dyes, grain of all sorts, gums, ivory, oils, opium, seeds of sorts, silk (raw and manufactured), sugar, tea, tobacco, wood (manufactured), indigo, and saltpetre.

The first general census of British India was taken during the year 1876, and, according to the revised returns, the total population numbered 191,096,603, living on an area of 899,341 square miles, or an average of 212 persons to the mile. The area and population of each of the divisions of India under direct British administration were as follows:— page 197

Presidencies and Provinces under the Administration of—	Area in Square Miles.	Population.
The Governor-General of India—
Ajmere	2,711	396,889
Berar	17,711	2,227,654
Mysore	29,325	5,055,412
Coorg	2,000	168,312
Governor—
Madras	138,856	31,672,613
Bombay (including Sind)	123,142	16,349,206
Lieutenant-Governors—
Bengal	156,200	60,502,897
North-west province	81,403	30,781,204
Punjaub	104,975	17,611,498
Chief Commissioners—
Oudh	23,992	11,220,232
Central Province	84,208	8,201,519
British Burmah	88,556	2,747,148
Assam	45,302	4,162,019
Total British administration	898,381	191,096,603

By the last official reports the native states exceed 450 in number. Some frontier provinces, like Nepaul, merely acknowledge British superintendence, while others pay tribute or provide military contingents. New states are gradually drawn within the circle of British supremacy, either for the consolidation or the protection of the existing boundaries. The latest movement of this description is the invasion of Afghanistan, a country about the size of the United Kingdom, with a population of about 4,000,000.

The British population in India, exclusive of the army, amounted in 1871 to 64,061 persons.

At the last enumeration there were in British India 44 towns, with over 50,000 inhabitants. Calcutta (with suburbs) had 794,645; Bombay, 644,405; Madras, 397,552. The total population of the 44 towns was 5,594,913 persons.

The foundation of a national system of education has been laid in the north-western provinces and Madras, and, generally throughout the whole of India, public instruction has made great progress in recent years. In 1857, by Acts of the Government of India, three universities were incorporated at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. For the year ending March, 1878, 1166 candidates for admission passed at Calcutta, 807 at Madras, and 217 at Bombay.

The first steps for inaugurating the railway system in India were taken in 1845, when two private associations were formed for the purpose of constructing lines of railroad. The Government guarantees, for a term of 99 years, interest at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum. The government has power to purchase the lines 25 or 50 years after the date of the contract, at the mean value of the shares for the three previous years, or on payment of a proportionate annuity until the end of the 99 years. Since 1869, all the new extensions have been carried out by the state.

In 1854 there were 21 miles of railway opened for traffic, and in 1879 that length had been increased to 8215 miles. There were also 1854 miles of line then in the course of construction.

The number of passengers carried on the Indian railways, in 1878, amounted to 38,945,743. The gross receipts for the year were £10,404,753, and the net proceeds after deduction of expenses were £5,197,815.

The total outlay upon Indian railways up to 31st March, 1878, was £115,059,454.

In 1878 there were 18,210 miles of telegraph lines opened, carrying 42,689 miles of wire. During the year ending 31st March, 1878, the total number of messages despatched from the 239 telegraph offices was 1,431,453. The total receipts were £306,089, and the net revenue, £26,210.

Consequent upon the construction of railways, the post-office system of British India has been vastly extended of late years. In the fiscal year ending 31st March, 1878, 115,089,336 letters, 10,999,758 newspapers, 909,962 parcels, and 1,827,024 books and patterns, passed through the Indian post-offices, which numbered 9681. The total revenue was £833,366, and she total expenditure, £768,584.