The public debt of Ii din; in India and :England in 1872 turiOunted to £112,314,760, on which the interest paid was £533,329. In 1877 the total amount of the debt was £127,30,159, of which £71,928,126 had been taken up in India, and R55,397,033 in Eng land.
1875-76, 6,259 vessels, of 2,629,923 tons, entered Indian ports in the foreign trade; and 6,201, of 799,063 tons, cleared The great bulk of the export and import trade of India is with Great Britain and Ireland; the following table shows the Indian , imports from the United Kingdom, and its exports thither.
rear ended March 31. Total Imports. Total Exports.
1873 £36,431,210 £56,540,042 1874... 39,628,562 56,940,073 1875 44,363,134 57,984,539 1876 44,188,062 60,291,731 1877 48,876,751 65,043,789 The total value of the merchandise imported into British India in 1872 was £31,088, 747; of treasure, £11,573,813. The chief items were: coal and coke, £514,794; cotton manufactures, £17,484,887; metals of all kinds, manufactured and unmanufactured, £2,390,775; salt, £913,975; raw silk, £651,595; silk manufactures, £480,948; spirits, £560,485; sugar and saccharine matter, £709,779. The total value of the exports in 1872 was as follows: Indian produce or manufactures, £61,697,225; foreign merchandise, £1,488,622; treasure, £1,476,093. The chief exports in the same year were the following• Coffee, £1,380,410; cotton wool, £21,272,430; cotton, manufactures of, £1,191,683; dyes of all kinds, £3,956,S69; grains and pulse, £4,865,748; hides and skins, £2,515,860; jute and manufacture of jute, R4,299,767; opium, £13,365,228; seeds, R2,728,127; silk, £1,130,706; .tea, £1,482,186; wool, £906;698. In 1875-76, the value (including treasure) of the total imports was £44,188,062: of exports, £60,291,731. The greater part of the trade of India is carried on with Great Britain; but there is also an extensive commerce with Ceylon, the Straits settlements, China, Australia, the Persian gulf, the Rol sea, and several of the European states.
Roads and Railways.—Since 1836 great trunk-roads have been constructed in various parts of India. The most remarkable is that from Calcutta to Peshawer, 1400 m. long The importance of these great works has now diminished, owing to the extension of a great railway system in India. The chief railways now open are the East Indian, from
Calcutta to belhi; the Indian PeninSula, which forms a branch to Bombay; the Delhi. Punjab, and Sinde, which will ultimately connect the system with the mouth of the Indus; the Bombay and Baroda, which runs n. from Bombay; the Madras railway, run ning s.c. to Madras, and thence s.w. to Beypfir on the Coromandel coast. Up to March, 1876, £93,720,794 had been expended by the guaranteed railway companies, and £8,000, 000 were required to complete their lines. The net receipts in 1875 were £3,647,868, including £71,354 from the state lines. If we estimate the cdpital at £97,000,000, tins represents an average return of £3, 15s. per cent upon the five per cent guaranteed capi tal, and a net loss to the government of £1,242,107. As the railways, however, are now almost completed, it is expected that their financial position will soon improve. In 1876-77 the net loss to government was only £588,467. In 1877 there were in all 6,948 m. of railway open in India, and near 3,000 more in course of construction. Nearly 17,000 m. of telegraphs connect all the important cities of British India, this Indian system being connected by three lines with England.
'Irrigation Works and Canals.—We have already referred to the importance of irriga tion in India, and the great attention given to the subject within late years On space will not permit us even to enumerate the great works recently undertaken in the basins of the Indus, Ganges, Mahanaddy, and Tapti, and in other parts of India, to supply water to the rich but parched soil, and thus extend the area of cultivation. Several of the canals are adapted for navigation as well as irrigation—and when works now in progress in Sirhind have been completed, there will be navigable communication from the Ganges to the Sutlej, and down the Indus to Kurachee. To give the greatest possible efficiency to the action of the government in relation to the extension of canals, an inspector general of irrigation works has been appointed, with irrigation secretaries in the various provinces.