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exchange issued by Indian bankers will show how their 

 gains were made up. The rates of exchange for goods 

 payable at Surat within two months were at Lahore on Surat, 

 6^ per cent. ; Agra 1 to 1 J per cent. ; Sironj 3 per cent. ; 

 Burhanpore 2^ to 3 per cent. ; Dacca 10 per cent. ; Patna 7 

 to 8 per cent.; Benares 6 per cent.; Golconda from 4 to 5 

 per cent. ; Goa from 4 to 5 per cent. ; Deccan 3 per cent. ; 

 Bijapur 3 per cent. ; and Dowlatabad 1 to 1^ per cent. 

 Tavernier adds " In some years the exchange rises 1 to 2 per 

 cent., where there are Rajahs or petty tributary princes, who 

 interfere with trade, each claiming that the goods ought to 

 traverse his territory and pay him custom. There are two 

 in particular between Agra and Ahmedabad, one of whom 

 is the Rajah of Antawar (Danta or Dantewar), and the other 

 the Rajah of Bergam (possibly Wungaon), who disturb the 

 merchants much in reference to this matter. One may, 

 however, avoid passing the territories of these two princes by 

 taking another route, from Agra and Surat by way of Sironj 

 and Burhanpore ; but these are fertile lands, intersected 

 by several rivers, the greater number of which are without 

 bridges and without boats, and it is impossible to pass until 

 two months after the rainy season. It is for this reason 

 that the merchants, who have to be at Surat in the season 

 for going to sea, generally take their way through the country 

 of these two Rajahs, because they are able to traverse it at 

 all seasons, even in the time of the rains, which consolidate 

 the sand with which the whole country is covered. Besides, 

 it is not to be wondered at that the exchange is so high, 

 for those who lend the money run, for their part, the risk 

 that if the goods are stolen the money is lost to them." 

 Tavernier' s remarks illustrate the difficulties which trade 

 had to contend with owing to the general insecurity of 

 property in the country and the absence of easy communica- 

 tions, and they further show how it was possible for a few 

 merchants and bankers to accumulate enormous wealth at the 



indiscriminately pass at one and the same value. During the period that the restraint 

 continues, viz., from Chingum to Khnmbnm (seven months), every person wishing 

 to exchange a fanam in the bazaar is required to receive it from the farmer at the price 

 at which his kaas might be current at the time. His own kaas is to be the only one 

 current at the bazaar during the above period ; and all the old kaas (those coined in 

 the years preceding, although their intrinsic value is the same with, and often better 

 than, that of the new) are bought up by the farmer at the rate of 150 old to 100 new, 

 and he is at liberty to take them wherever he can find them passing in the bazaar, and 

 give his own kaas in exchange at the above rate. These old kaas he either recoins 

 anew or reserves them till the month of Khumbum, when old and new passing without 

 distinction he disposes of the former, which he got before at 50 per cent, discount, at 

 their real or what may be their current value in the bazaar, which is from 36 to 38 to a 

 fanam. Besides the above privileges, he has that of levying a kaas daily from every 

 shop that may be open in the bazaar. This is an institution which has been of very 

 old standing and not one of late introduction." 



