NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH MEMORANDUM.
39
The history of the Banda district is also a case in point. During the years 1864-71
the distillery system was in force. The drug revenue then averaged Rs. 7,661, rising in
1870-71 to Rs. 8,090. The distillery system was condemned as unsuitable to the district and
was abandoned in favour of the outstill or farming system. The drug receipts fell in 1872-73
to Rs. 4,256, and in 1873-74 to Rs. 3,650, and notwithstanding the general provincial im-
provement are now below Rs. 6,000. The fall of drug revenue in 1872-73 is due altogether
to the change of system which made country liquor again accessible to the people.
In the North-Western Provinces the most marked increase of drug revenue has been in
the eastern districts belonging to the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions. These are the
districts in which the habit of spirit-drinking was most prevalent and where the enhance-
ment of price and curtailment of supply under the Central Distillery System has been most
severely felt. Before the introduction of that system these districts furnished 40 to 50 per
cent of the total revenue of the North-Western Provinces from country spirits. I find that
in 1862-63, when the system was introduced, the percentage was 48. The percentage of the
total provincial revenue from hemp-drugs furnished by the same area in that year was only
18. In 1890-91 the former percentage had fallen to 31 and the latter had risen to almost
32. In 1862-63 the drug contract for the Benares district was Rs. 7,000: in 1890-91 it had
risen to Rs. 44,000.
Oudh was essentially a spirit-drinking province. The consumption was everywhere
large. The administrative changes have affected it more than the North-Western Pro-
vinces. In Oudh the S. H. D. before 1877 was 12 annas per gallon, in the North-West-
ern Provinces it was Re. 1-8. In that year a uniform duty of Re. 1 was imposed in both
provinces. The figures already quoted show that while the drug revenue of the North-West-
ern Provinces has increased by Rs. 50 per cent., that of Oudh has increased by Rs. 193
per cent. Meanwhile the liquor revenue from Oudh has increased by Rs. 100 per cent. only. A
reference to the tabular statement will show the very low incidence of drug revenue in the
Bundelkhand districts where the outstill system is in force.
I am unwilling to prolong this memorandum by accumulating figures and arguments
on this point. But it is one which seems to me to deserve the most serious consideration.
Facts, figures, and opinions point irresistibly to the conclusion that the measures which have
been taken to restrict the supply of country spirits and increase the revenue from it have
tended pari passu to stimulate the use of drugs. If it be admitted that so long as human
nature remains unchanged, some form of stimulants will be used, it follows that any measures
to restrict drugs will be only half successful unless they are accompanied by measures which
will render less harmful stimulants more accessible.
It is necessary to remember that even behind hemp-drugs there are deeper depths.
Dhatura, strychnine, aconite, and other poisons may occupy the field from which spirits and
hemp-drugs are excluded.
45. There is one other matter which I would like to mention before quitting the subject
of the provincial revenue from hemp-drugs. In his otherwise admirable monograph on the
hemp plant, the author of the Dictionary of Economic Products has committed himself to
many severe strictures on the fiscal and administrative policy of this Government. I have
no hesitation in asserting that he has been largely misled by fallacious conclusions from errone-
ous statistics. It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed examination of his errors,
some of which lie on the surface. But as his work is, no doubt, in the hands of the Commis-
sion, I would venture to record a warning against accepting either its statistics or its conclu-
sions as far as these provinces are concerned without a careful scrutiny or without a reference
to those who could explain supposed anomalies or defects.
Prices.
46. I have at various places mentioned the current prices of the different drugs. I here
give them in collective form. The wholesale prices are those at which the contractors procure
them. The retail prices are those at which the public buy them. There is a third set of
prices at which contractors supply their sub-licensees, but these are merely for the adjustment
of accounts. The retail prices are only approximate. They vary very widely from place to
place. Besides district variations, prices are often twice or thrice as high in large towns as
in rural parts. They are also lowest at the borders of districts where they come into com-
petition with the drugs of other vendors. Prices also vary with the amount purchased.
When sold by weight in any quantity, the drug is cheaper; when sold in made up packets or
doses, the price is higher. I doubt if retail prices vary much from year to year. The vendors
in every year charge as much as they can get, and as the difference between cost prices and
retail prices is enormous, there is always a large margin of profit, A rise of cost price comes
out of the profits of the contractor or the Government revenue, or both. But wholesale prices
vary very much from year to year, according to the supply and demand and to the duty which
may be imposed on the produce or in transit. The prices here given are those now current.
It is hardly necessary to add that all prices vary with the quality of the articles sold. These
drugs deteriorate rapidly and are often sold off at nominal prices, a circumstance which will
frequently account for the extraordinary discrepancies in reported rates.