151 



or pledge, or at one ana or one-sixteenth in the 

 rupee, per mensem, without either, or at the rate of 

 37 2 and 75 per cent, per annum. Accounts, by 

 European Bankers, are invariably made up half 

 yearly, and by natives, generally, yearly. 



Money transactions between Bankers are carried 

 on at the comparatively low rate of 6 per cent, in 

 consequence of the unexceptionable nature of the 

 security. The Banking- system of India is peculiar, 

 and, looking- to the present state of society, perhaps 

 the most peculiar feature in it, is the integrity with 

 which it is conducted. The credit of the Barings 

 and Rothschilds in the Western world, is not better 

 than that of some of our Indian Bankers over the 

 whole extent of a peninsula as large as half Europe. 

 Their Bills are as good in the native markets as the 

 notes of the Bank of England are in Great Britain, 

 and for a long time to come, I am afraid, will be pre- 

 ferred, among a very large class of the mercantile com- 

 munity, to the Government notes. When, however? 

 we come to pass beyond the limits of the Bankers 

 guild, the complexion of circumstances is altered. 

 Money is scarce, the prevailing order of things in 

 India up to the most recent date, has been uncertainty, 

 the great body of the aristocracy, large landed pro- 

 prietors, &c., fond of pomp and show, are extrava- 

 gant j and these circumstances combined, has had 

 the effect of keeping the rates of interest for money 

 very high, so high, that as abovemei^oned,12 

 per cent, on the security of good landed property,, 



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