That, notwithstanding the cantonment of several bodies of the Company's
troops within the province, since the abolition of the native
government, it became subject in a particular manner to the depredations
of the Rajahs upon the borders; insomuch that in one quarter no fewer
than thirty villages had been sacked and burned, and the inhabitants
reduced to the most extreme distress.
That the Resident, in his letter to the board at Calcutta, did represent
that the collection of the revenue was become very difficult, and,
besides the extreme drought, did assign for a cause of that difficulty
the following. "That there is also one fund which in former years was
often applied in this country to remedy temporary inconveniences in the
revenue, and which in the present year does not exist. This was the
private fortunes of merchants and _shroffs_ [bankers] resident in
Benares, from whom _aumils_ [collectors] of credit could obtain
temporary loans to satisfy the immediate calls of the Rajah. These sums,
which used to circulate between the aumil and the merchant, have been
turned into a different channel, by bills of exchange to defray the
expenses of government, both on the west coast of India, and also at
Madras.
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