other hand, describes these as "token and random measures, at best palliatives." In the 1630-32 famine, for example, the emperor dispersed 100,000 rupees for famine relief, a tenth of the annual "pin-money" granted his empress Mumtaz Mahal. (Imperial revenue officials and local jagir amirs each granted around 7 million rupees in tax relief). British rule The late 18th and 19th centuries saw an increase in the incidence of severe famine. Approximately 15 millions died from 1850 to 1899 in 24 major famines; more than in any other 50-year period. These famines in British India were bad enough to have a remarkable impact on the long term population growth of the country, especially in the half-century between 1871–1921. The first, the Great Bengal famine of 1770, is estimated to have taken the lives of between 1 and 10 million people. The impact of the famine caused East India Company revenues from Bengal to decline to £174,300 in 1770–71. The stock price of the East India Company fell sharply as a result. The company was forced to obtain a loan of £1 million from the Bank of England to fund the annual military budget of between £60,000–1 million. Attempts were later made to show that net revenue was unaffected by the famine, but this was possible only because the collection had been "violently kept up to its former standard". The 1901 Famine Commission found that twelve famines and four "severe scarcities" took place between 1765 and 1858. Indian famine In the later nineteenth century there was a series of disastrous crop failures in India leading not only to starvation but to epidemics. Most were regional, but the death toll could be huge. A major famine coincided with Lord Curzon's time as viceroy which affected large parts of India and killed at least 1 million people. Researcher Brian Murton states that the famines recorded after the arrival of the English, but before the establishment of the Indian Famine Codes of the 1880s, bear a cultural bias regarding the stated causes of the famine because they "reflect the view of a handful of Englishmen." These sources, however, contain accurate recordings of weather and crop conditions. Florence Nightingale made efforts to educate British subjects about India's famines through a series of publications in the 1870s and beyond. Florence Nightingale pointed out that the famines in British India were not caused by the lack of food