INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

U8
ADJfINI3TIUTIV'E MANAGEMENT
would supply 200 maunds: the latter retorted
that he was willing to give 200 maunds if the
first speaker would give 400 maunds, an
amount he professed himself unable to supply."
The" Bunniah "-i. 6., the retail grain-dealeris
always looked upon in such times with suspicion
; in fact, at no time is he a very reliable
person. He knows that in times of scarcity
the character he bears is not of the best; and
acting in the spirit of the proverb ... he speedily
dissipates all doubt. Certainly it is with the
direct end of personal gain in view that he advances
the prices on the least provocation; but
this is Dot an altogether unmitigated evil, as will
hereafter be more fully noticed. This grainmerchant
is therefore not always entirely responsible
for the whole of the . obloquy laid at
his door; but he has had to suffer for it, in
defiance of all rules of political economy, as the
following extract from an official document
shows. The only excuse for this defiance is,
that Adam Smith was unknown in those days.
The extract is from a circular issued by the
Bengal Committee of Revenue, in 1783, "to all
chiefs and collectors." " We direct that you