IS

other Domestic requirements including eatables may also
provide useful work both for men and women. If a com-
prehensive survey into the various existing cottage indus-
tries as well as to the possibilities of new cottage industries
is made by the Department of Industries, one of the cry-
ing needs of Gujarat will be met. It may be noted that
such surveys have been made in most of the other presi-
dencies ; the Bombay Presidency happens to be backward
in this connection.

PRICES AND WAGES

Though the actual yield of agricultural produce has
not been satisfactory, the monetary returns have increased
largely since 1890. This is due to increase in prices of
most of the principal articles that are produced. The
following table gives weighted index numbers of the prices
of wheat, paddy, bajri and jowar which constitute the
food grains of the area.

Weighted Index Numbers of Prices of foodgrains in

Gujarat1

Year
Index No.
Year
Index No.
Year
Index No.
Year
Index No.

1890
100
1899
131
1908
160
1916
146

1891
107
1900
185
1909
137
1917
134

1892
106
1901
121
1910
120
1918
274

189S
J02
1902
127
1911
128
1919
347

1894
103
190S
91
1912
149
1920
260

1895
102
1904
95
1913
134
1921
290

1896
130
1905
120
1914
159
1922
243

1897
161
1906
128
1915
156
1923
200

1898
104
1907
124

We find from the table that though there are fliictua7
tions till 1905 partly due to famine conditions at the end
1 Calculated on the basis of prices given in Survey and Settlement Reports
of the Talukas of Gujarat.