INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 15 



assessment ; a liberal estimate of the selling value of these occupancies 

 would not exceed an average of 10 years' assessment, and it is plain 

 that the debt is nearly double the capital value of the land to 

 an ordinary purchaser. The solution of this apparent anomaly is that 

 the amount of the debt as represented in the bonds held by the sow- 

 Tear is far more than the real value of the consideration which has 

 passed, and the sowkars in no case expect to be paid in full ; secondly, 

 that the ryot's land is often more valuable as security to the sowkar than 

 it is as an ordinary investment to a purchaser; for, "through the great 

 reluctance of the ryot to sever all connection with his land, the sowkar 

 is able to exact more than the ordinary rent ; and thirdly, the land is 

 not the only security which the sowkar holds ; the law gives him a 

 command not only over the debtor's immovable property, but over 

 his labour and the labour of his family. 



The nature of the dealings. 



The transactions between sowkar and ryot are all conducted 

 by means of bonds ; an account current is hardly known. 

 There is usually a debt of long standing, probably inherited, the 

 interest of which makes a yearly debit. Besides this debit there 

 are the retail transactions called in the vernacular "give and 

 take", meaning that the debtor delivers his produce, or as much 

 of it as he is obliged to deliver, to his creditor, and the creditor 

 supplies his needs clothing, assesment, seeds, food, and cash for 

 miscellaneous expenses. Every now and then a larger item appears 

 on either side, a standing crop as yet unripe is perhaps sold after a 

 valuation either to the creditor himself or another, the creditor in 

 the latter case getting the price paid, or a pair of bullocks or cow 

 and calf are given to the creditor on account; against this the debtor 

 draws occasionally a considerable sum for a marriage, for the purchase 

 of land or bullocks or a standing crop, or for the digging of a well. 

 Bonds are continually passed as the account progresses, sometimes a 

 bond is taken as a deposit, and the debtor draws against it; or, a small 

 transaction is included in a larger bond and the debtor is to draw 

 against the balance. 



Marwari sowkars keep accounts, but often only in the form 



of a memorandum book, money-lenders not 



Sowkar's accounts. ' 



belonging to the trading classes orten keep 



