Paddy is again selling fearfully dear [in Nellore]. What was 105 Rupees a putty three weeks ago has become 130 Rupees a putty; and enquiries appear to be brisk even at that rate. Second sort paddy has flown up from 64 Rs. to Rs. 100. To the public these frequent rises are very difficult to understand. Since their memorial to Government last March about the situation in food stocks and prices, the Government appear to have put restrictions upon exports of rice from this district by rail. What stock there then was, assuming that our local administrators had fully and vigilantly prevented smuggling out – one speculator alone is reported to have purchased 70,000 Rs. worth of paddy for export the other day – has been augmented by the second crop harvest in the delta taluks which has just come in. Further, during May, a few consignments of Rangoon rice had been allowed into the local market by the Director of Civil supplies. Under these circumstances, we had thought we had fairly enough to keep us going on for some more time easily and without any catastrophic fluctuations of price.
