Nineteenth Century Mithila Finucane's Survey of a Village

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The growing industrial development in Britain necessitated acquirement and accumulation of as much capital as possible by the British Government from her colonies, especially India. Under this impulsive notion the revenue administration of the country was fundamentally overhauled. The Mughal land revenue system which "rested on a compromise: the peasant was left with sufficient provision for subsistence, while the surplus, as far as possible, was extracted by the state in the form of land revenue," was swapped over by the "gentlemanly capitalism" which laid much emphasis on "an alliance between landed interests and financial power," and where "revenue became and remained the central preoccupation of the Imperial policy." The implementation of the Permanent Settlement by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was the manifestation of this guiding principle.

Lord Cornwallis as a true representative of the Whig conception of political society believed that private property proffer the most stable base to peace and progress in the civil society and therefore, "regarded landed property as an agency for preserving order in the society." Under this credence, in his new revenue settlement he granted proprietary rights in land to the zamindars with whom he was formulating the Permanent Revenue Settlement. He firmly believed that this settlement with the zamindars would make them available a group of staunch allies who would also ensure peace and stability in the Empire. At the same time the settlement would fix the revenue and furnish an increase in zamindar's income. This augmentation in income would be due to the latter's adoption of a positive attitude towards the problem of agriculture and investment in this sector for making agricultural facilities available to the tenants which would lead to more production and resultant additional income to them. This circle of income-investment-added income would generate capital- so necessary for rising capitalism.