A British official in the Bombay Deccan in the 1820s has been trained in Ricardian ideas. Which one of the following pairs shows his thinking correctly?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Surplus above average rent - income the state needed to tax
Option (1) Average rent - a claim the landowner should give up to the state — Incorrect. Under Ricardian ideas the landowner had a rightful claim to the average rent. It was the income above it that the state wanted.
Option (2) Surplus above average rent - income the state needed to tax — Correct. Land that yielded more than the average rent left the landowner a surplus, and the state needed to tax it. Untaxed, it would make cultivators rentiers.
Option (3) Rentier - a landowner who invests his surplus in improving land — Incorrect. A rentier lives on rental income from property. Officials feared that an untaxed surplus would not be invested in improving land.
Option (4) Permanent Settlement - a system that let the state share rising farm income — Incorrect. Under the Permanent Settlement the revenue demand was fixed. So the state could not claim any share of the rising income of Bengal zamindars.
NCERT (2026-27): “3.2 A new revenue system … |