Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/64

SHROFFS. of gold and silver ornaments, in small proportion to their value, but at moderate interest. He rarely perhaps makes advances on produce, as it is more in the line of the Bimnea than himself; but he lends money at high interest, and on the best security he can get. He is considered above the mean trickery of the Bunnea, and often ranks as a "Bhula-admec," a "good fellow," in popular estimation. It would be no reproach to be called a Shroff, but it would be unpardonable insult to be called a Bunnea. A Shroff may remain a Shroff all his life, if he have not luck. If he has been fortunate, however, he becomes a Sahoukar, or Mahajun, and enlarges his transactions. He now watches the money market, speculates in stock, and establishes agencies in other cities, upon which he can draw bills of exchange, or hoondees, the ordinary form of remittance in India. Thus in time he becomes, perhaps, a great banker; and his transactions may rival those of a similar profession in Europe. Men who have thus risen, as it were, from the ranks, are by no means uncommon in India, and are proud of declaring that they have done so. Shroffs have, from constant experience, an extraordinary skill in detecting false or light coin. They will sit down patiently to count and examine thousands of rupees. One will merely count, and pass on the heaps; another will pass each rupee through his fingers, and detect, no matter how skilfully it has been executed, a false coin, or one "sweated " or short of weight. The milled Company's rupees are next to impossible of correct imitation by native coiners; but the coin of native states, which in form and in impress is very rude, affords ample field to the coiner for the exercise of his skill, which only a Shroff could detect. He is an excellent judge of gold, testing its value by his touch stone, and deciding upon the colour, the grain it leaves upon the stone, and other indications. He can tell also how much good gold there is in a piece of jewellery, and especially, if he intends to be a purchaser, how much adulterated: how much lead has been run into apparently solid portions of it by the goldsmith, and where, to the disappointment, very frequently, of the owner, who finds out how deeply he has been cheated.

Shroffs are a steady, money-getting, class of people. While they are not educated in any intellectual sense of the word, they are not ignorant, and are good accountants and book-keepers. Their system is that of double entry, which is, at least, as old as the institution of Menu, and may be older. The Shroff keeps a day book and ledger, and is very particular about them, worshipping them as all book-keepers do, at the festivals of the Dussera and Dewallee; and at the latter he may gamble a little, just to test what sort of luck he is to have during the next year. The village Shroff is frequently the goldsmith; but the town or city Shroff is above an artizan in social class, though not in caste. The village Shroff goes about to fairs and markets in a certain circle round the country. The town Shroff does not wander. The habits and daily work of all is, however, the same, and wherever