Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/784

760 760 INDIA [COMMEECE. 960,000. The trade in betel-nuts amounted to nearly 44 million It), valued at over 500,000. Burmah consumes most of these, obtaining its supplies from Bengal ; while Bombay gets considerable quantities from Madras, from the Concan and Goa, and from Bengal. Sugar (reiined and unrefined) figures to the large amount of 900,000, of which the greater part came from Bengal. The move ments of treasure coastwise show a total of just 5 millions sterling, being exceptionally augmented by the conveyance of silver to Barman in payment for rice supplied to Madras. The following table exhibits the totals of the trade conducted along the landward frontier of the Indian empire, so far as figures are available: Registered Frontier Trade of India in 1877-1878. Imports. Exports. Total. Afghanistan and adjoin ing hill tribes,

671,000

718,000

1,389,000 Kashmir, Ladakh, and Tibet 630,000 374,000 1,004,000 Nepal 1,054,000 633,000 1,687,000 North-East Frontier tribes Independent Burmah 77,000 1,664,000 30,000 1,762,000 107,000 3,426,000 Siam 69,000 57,000 126,000 Total 4,165,000 3,574,000 7,739,000 Internal In any community raised above primitive barbarism trade. t} ie aggregate volume of its internal trade must be far greater than that of its foreign commerce ; but, from the nature of the case, it is impossible to estimate its amount or even to describe adequately its general charac ter. On the one hand, there is the wholesale business connected with foreign commerce in its earliest stages the collection of agricultural produce from a thousand little villages, its accumulation at a few great central marts, and its despatch to the seaboard ; in return for which manu factured articles are distributed by the same channels, though in the reverse direction. On the other hand, there is the interchange of commodities of native growth and manufacture, sometimes between neighbours, but also be tween distant provinces. With a few unimportant excep tions, free trade is the rule throughout the vast peninsula of India, by land as well as by sea. The Hindus possess a natural genius for commerce, as is shown by the daring with which they have penetrated into the heart of Central Asia, and to- the east coast of Africa. Among the benefits which British rule has conferred upon them is the removal of the innumerable shackles that a short-sighted despotism had imposed upon their talents. Broadly speaking, the greater part of the internal trade remains in the hands of the natives. Europeans control the shipping business, and have a share in the collection of some of the more valuable staples of exports, such as cotton, jute, oil-seeds, and wheat. But the work of distri bution and the adaptation of the supply to the demand of the consumer naturally fall to those who are best acquainted with native wants. Even in the presidency towns the retail shops are generally owned by natives. The Vaisya, or trading caste of Manu, has no longer any separate existence; but its place is occupied by several well-marked classes. On the western coast the Parsis, by the boldness and extent of their operations, tread close upon the heels of the most prosperous English houses. In the interior of the Bombay presidency, business is mainly divided between two classes, the Baniyas of Guzerat and the Marwarls from Rajputana. Each of these profess a peculiar form of religion, the former being Vishnuvites of the Vallabhachari sect, the latter Jains. In the Deccan their place is taken by Lingayats from the south, who again follow their own form of Hinduism, which is an heretical species of Siva worship. Throughout Mysore, and in the north of Madras, Lingayats are still found, but along the eastern sea-board the predominating classes of traders are those named Chetties and Komatis. In Bengal many of Trading classes. the upper castes of Sudras have devoted themselves to general trade ; but there again the Jain Marwaris from Raj putana and the North- West occupy the front rank. Their head-quarters are in MurshidAbad district, and their agents are to be found throughout the valley of the Brahmaputra, as far up as the unexplored frontier of China. They pene trate everywhere among the wild tribes ; and it is said that the natives of the Khdsi hills are the only hillmen who do their own business of buying and selling. In the North-Western Provinces and Oudh the traders are generi- cally called Bauiyas; and in the Punjab are found the Khatris, who have perhaps the best title of any to regard themselves as descendants of the original Vaisyas. According to the general census of 1872, the total number of persons in all India returned as connected with com merce and trade was 3,224,000, or 5 2 per cent, of the adult males. Local trade is conducted either at the permanent bdzdrs Loca of great towns, at weekly markets held in certain villages, tr ad&amp;lt; at annual gatherings primarily held for religious purposes, or by means of travelling brokers and agents. The culti vator himself, who is the chief producer and also the chief customer, knows little of the great towns, and expects the dealer to come to his own door. Each village has at least one resident trader, who usually combines in his own per son the functions of money-lender, grain dealer, and cloth seller. The simple system of rural economy is entirely based upon the dealings of this man, whom it is the fashion sometimes to decry as a usurer, but who is really the one thrifty person among an improvident population. Abolish the money-lender, and the general body of cultivators would have nothing to depend upon but the harvest of a single year. The money-lender deals chiefly in grain and in specie. In those districts where the staples of export are largely grown, the cultivators commonly sell their crops to travelling brokers, who re-sell to larger dealers, and so on until the commodities reach the hands of the agents of the great shipping houses. The wholesale trade thus rests ultimately with a comparatively small number of persons, who have agencies, or rather corresponding firms, at the great central marts. Buying and selling in their aspects most characteristic of India are to be seen, not at these great towns, nor even at the weekly markets, but at the fairs which are held periodically at certain spots in most districts. Religion is always the original pretext of these gatherings or melds, at some of which nothing is done be yond bathing in the river, or performing various supersti tious ceremonies. But in the majority of cases religion has become a mere excuse for secular business. Crowds of petty traders attend, bringing all those miscellaneous articles that can be packed into a pedlar s wallet : and the neighbouring villagers look forward to the occasion to satisfy alike their curiosity and their household wants. It is, of course, impossible to express accurately in figures the Provi; extent of internal trade, but the following statistics will serve in cial some measure to show both its recent development and its actual trade. amount. They are based upon the registration returns that have been collected for some years past in certain provinces. In 1863-64 the total external trade of the Centra] Provinces, both export and import, was estimated to amount to 102,000 tons, valued at 3,909,000. By 1868-69, after the opening of the Jabalpur through railway, it had increased to 209,000 tons, valued at 6,795,000. In 1877-78, the year of famine in southern India, the corresponding figures were 635,000 tons and 9,373,000, show ing an increase in fourteen years of more than sixfold in quantity, and considerably more than twofold in value. The comparatively small increase in value is to be attributed to the exclusion from the later returns of opium, which merely passes through in transit from Malwa. In 1874-75 the total external trade of the Punjab amounted to about 600,000 tons, valued (but probably overvalued) at about 16,000,000. In 1877-78 it had increased to nearly 900,000 tons, valued at 17,500,000. The total trade of Behar in