The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s9.268

c7.s9.268

It must be remembered however that Lord Valentia's visit was immediately after the famine of 1802-3, and that 1824 also succeeded two years of drought. But the records of Government show that not much had been done up to 1808 to restore the island from the condition into which it had fallen during the occupation of the Maráthás. For fourteen years after we took it no change was made in the system of revenue and collections. Lands were still farmed out to the highest bidder, and the English Chief of Sálsette was paid by the cesses called sar deshmukhi and sarpáteli imposed by the Maráthás. The grain assessment had yielded under the Portuguese 10,077 mudás of rice, under the Maráthás it fell to 7465, and under our Government in 1794-95 to 6075. In 1798 the jamábandi was fixed at two-thirds of the Portuguese assessment, and most of the cesses imposed by the Maráthás were abolished. But the tax on grazing lands and on wood-cutting, the mohtarpha or tax on trades, and that on fisheries were retained, and the result was that the village of Bándra paid altogether over Rs. 12,000 in revenue, and was said to be "most lightly assessed."⁶ The fact is that our Governors, who in those days were always more or less in financial difficulties, had not foresight enough to see the virtue of really light assessments, and thought they were doing wonders when they relieved the people of a few of the extraordinary number of taxes imposed by the Maráthás. But the relief was insufficient, and the effect very small.