historical roots of mass poverty in SA, tapan rayachaudhuri (1985)

(801): phenomenon of large groups of half-starving people (underdevelopment) is not a holdover from pre-modern times. this, in India, is traceable to new institutional arrangements in Ag. starting in 1813.

(801): output of foodgrains per head of pop declined, as cashcrops were promoted

(801): moreover, this was an already established fact by the time that populations started to increase

(802): according to Kuznets, income per head in traditional societies in Asia was probably higher than in pre-industrial phase of Europe

(802): citing evidence of 'very high' both land and labour yields in pre-industrial agrarian India [hmm]

(802): Greater Bengal had been free from recurrent famines, 1570-1770

(802-803): level of revenue demand had been kept in check by labour shortages in Mughal period (oppressed peasants could 'vote with their feet']

(803): not a 'uniformly immiserated peasantry'

(803): there were no 'absolute' shortages of food in pre-colonial India [i.e., per capita grain availability]

(804): those with no rights to land were and are likely to suffer, but in pre-colonial India this was a small portion of the pop--nowhere near 45%

(804-805): 1813 as key turning point, w/ end of Company's monopoly [but evidence adduced here is weak]

(805): key--colonial government introduced tenurial systems which gave proprietary rights to about 4% of population dependent on agriculture (identical with old class that had 'superior rights' in land, but it eliminated the 'usufractory right of other agricultural classes')

(805): details of p. capita growth; availability per capita of foodgrain declining in 20th C.

(806): as revenue came to be collected in cash, agricultural producer pressure to sell. conditions of selling were very unfavourable; monopsony in buyers, monopoly in suppliers.