INDIAN FAMINES - Institute for Social and Economic Change

AND PRESS CRITICISM. 149
do in the most public manner issue orders by
beat of tom-tom * in all the bazaars and gungest
in the districts under your charge, declaring
that if any merchant shall conceal his grain,
refuse to bring it to market and sell it at a reasonable
price, he will not only be punished himself
in the most exemplary manner, but his
grain will be seized and distributed among the
poor." The Orissa Famine Commissioners
remark that the tendency to hoard grain is
sometimes the" result of avarice and partly of
ignorance and timidity. The action has been
to withhold grain from the market until the
stock in hand of retail-dealers was exhausted,
and then to sell by driblets, so as to enhance not
only the price but the trouble of procuring
rice." "There is also a vague idea that next
year may turn out an insufficient crop; and
those who hold more thau enough rice for their
own use during the current year will hold the
balance for next, in place of throwing it into
the markets." No amount of care or precaution
can overcome these scruples, except yjgorous
action by Government or by some other