CORCHORUS 



Sales 



THE JUTE PLANT 



Legislation 

 needed. 



The Middlemen 

 (Beparis and 

 Mahajans). 



Contracts 

 made by Secret 

 Symbols. 



Brokerage. 



safety. It has been reported that the traders often add as much as 20 per 

 cent, to the normal moisture of good clean fibre, as also a large quantity 

 of sand, and thus are able to sell at less than they purchased, and still make 

 a good profit. It has been urged by the Committee of the Baled Jute Asso- 

 ciation that so serious has this practice become that it would be advan- 

 tageous to have a law passed that would penalise the sale of jute containing 

 more than an accepted percentage of moisture. This matter was discussed 

 at a meeting of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, and it is understood steps 

 are being taken that may result in the passing of a Bengal Jute Frauds Act. 



The cumbrous nature of the channel of jute sales and the difficulties 

 that exist in checking this criminal moistening of the fibre, may be learned 

 from the following extract from a note on Fraudulent Watering by 

 D. N. Mookerji : 



" Between the raiyats at one end and the home market at the other 

 there are the following middlemen : beparis or dealers, mahajans or arat- 

 dars, buyers, balers, and shippers. Sometimes the last three functions 

 are combined by the same firm that bale and ship off at Calcutta what 

 their agents buy in the country. But the business at Serajganj may be 

 said to be practically in the hands of the mahajans or brokers. They are 

 well-to-do people, being mostly Marwaris. They advance money to the 

 beparis or sellers, the condition being that the latter must bring to the 

 mahajans all the jute they can get from the raiyats. The money is not 

 realised from season to season, but is allowed to be in the hands of the 

 beparis, one bepari sometimes having an advance of Es. 5,000 or Rs. 10,000, 

 and occasionally no less than Rs. 20,000. When the jute is brought to 

 the mahajan he settles the price with the buyer secretly, the bepari having 

 nothing to do with it and often not knowing at all what his jute sells for. 

 He has only a general idea of the state of the market from the price other 

 beparis receive for their jute. I witnessed, on several occasions, the way 

 the price is settled between the mahajan and the buyer. The mahajan 

 throws a corner of his dhuti over the hand of Mr. X. and makes a sign on 

 his palm. The latter exclaims in surprise it is far too high and he cannot 

 possibly pay more than so much, making an answering sign on the palm 

 of the mahajan, still under the dhuti. After some haggling the negotiations 

 terminate. The mahajan now at once settles with the bepari, who goes 

 home with his money, he (the mahajan) being paid by the buyer a few 

 weeks (generally three weeks) later. The mahajan gets a brokerage of 

 2 to 4 annas per maund, but over and above this we may be sure he leaves 

 a margin between what he pays the bepari and what he himself gets from 

 the buyers. Plainly he is entitled to some discount for the ready cash he 

 pays in advance, but the rate might be definitely settled, and the transaction 

 might be aboveboard. The price of jute is subject to violent fluctuations. 

 Probably there is no other article the price of which varies so much in the 

 course of a few days in the same season. Both the buyers and the mahajans 

 have daily wires from all the important jute marts, telling them of the 

 state of the market, but the information is carefully kept to themselves. 

 It might be an advantage to have some agency for making it public. At 

 Chandpur there are no mahajans, but the beparis deal directly with the 

 buyers. The raiyats also to some extent sell their own jute to the pur- 

 chasing firms, without the intervention even of the beparis." This remark- 

 able story illustrates but one aspect, though a striking one, of the jute 

 market. 



420 



