What did colonial rule want to gain by expanding cultivation?

Correct answer: Land revenue

The direct answer is A: Land revenue. To understand this from the beginning, colonial governments wanted cultivation to spread because cultivated land could be measured, assessed and taxed. When farmers grew crops on more land, the government could demand land revenue, meaning money paid to the state by cultivators or landholders. The reasoning is: more land under cultivation → more agricultural production and taxable holdings → more possible land revenue for the colonial government. Option A is correct because it directly expresses this economic aim. Option B, sea pearls, is wrong because pearls were not the normal revenue objective of expanding farming. Option C, the colour of rain, is meaningless and has no connection with colonial taxation or agriculture. Option D, sports medals, is unrelated to nineteenth-century colonial economic policy. A common exam cue is to connect expansion of cultivation with revenue collection, though cultivation also had other effects and causes in colonial history.