INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

106 FINANCIAL AND OTHER RESULTS
revenue have decreased. I may here appropriately
particularise some of the works which
contributed to this end. My remarks apply to
the N orth-Western Province, as I am familiar
with this part of India only; but we may assume
that most other provinces have received
an equal share of attention.
In 1837, the Grand Trunk Road, "that work
of Roman solidity and extent," was metalled
continuously only between Calcutta and Allahabad.
"Nothing worthy of the name of a
road existed in the direction of the Central
Provinces, and the intercourse between one
district and another was of a most primitive
and limited description."· In 1861, metalled
roads formed a network all over the country
-not as many, perhaps, as were necessary,
but their extent was in proportion to the
ability of the country to pay for them. Other
signs of British administration were also evident.
. Massive railways now extended over
about the same lengths as the metalled roads
did in the previous famine, and steamers had
to a great extent superseded the native craft
• Girdlestone.