It is a well-known fact that the ills of the present owe themselves to the past.<-p>

Why is it that small countries, popularly known as the Newly Industrialised countries, NICS for short, have been able to make enormous economic progress while India has not been able to commensurate with its material, man-power and intellectual resources? The answer must be found in the economic development of the country in the immediate past. This work of a renowned professor of economics helps the economic historian and the economist of today to get at that answer.<-p>

The book traces the historical evolution from Mughal times of the condition, quality and standard of life as determined by incomes of the working people beginning with the ordinary labourer and artisan. It discusses the level and character of trade including maritime trade. It shows how famine and epidemic were not more frequent in the 16th and 17th centuries as in the 20th.<-p>

Coming to the `20s of this century, the author discusses prices, currency, system, the rate of exchange, population, agriculture, industry and transport, and finally, banking and finance including India`s taxable capacity of the time.<-p>