cclxxv 



The loans granted under the special well rules at a small rate of 

 interest were mostly in the months of March, April and May last, when 

 a Deputy Collector was specially deputed to this taluk for the purpose. 

 That these loans have affected the transactions of Nattukottai Chetties 

 will be clear from the number of documents executed and registered in 

 their favor in those months. The number of documents executed in 

 favor of five of the important Chetties in the three months in 1891 and 

 1892 have been compared, and it is found that while the total number 

 registered in 1891 was 88, the number has fallen to 30 in 1892. The 

 rates of interest have not, however, shown any decline. The sums lent 

 amounted in a large number of cases to from lis. 100 to Rs. 500, and 

 in very rare instances to Rs. 1,000. The average rate of interest for the 

 former class is Rs. 1-4-0 or 15 per cent, per annum. Deducting the 

 interest which the Chetties have to pay to theii' bankers in Madras, there 

 is a net gain of about 7 per cent. This does not, however, express the 

 full extent of theu' profit as some of them have invested funds with the 

 Madras bankers and share their profits also. Moreover it is not always 

 with remittances from Madras that they carry on their business. Sums 

 of Rs. 1,000 or Rs. 2,000 are got from their private funds at Devakota 

 in the Madura district, the central seat of Nattukottai Chetties. A deed 

 for Rs. 1,800 in May 1892 bears rate of interest at 12 annas per 

 mensem, the rate chargeable in Madras being about 14 annas in the 

 month ; this at first sight seems inexplicable. But as the interest is here 

 levied throughout the whole term at a fixed rate, and as the high 

 rates in Madras are payable only for two or three months, the same sum 

 bearing about 9 annas rate in July and August, the profit at the close 

 of the term will be large. 



(5) The account given by Mr. Warden, Collector of Malabar in 1801, 

 of usurious money-lenders in Pdlghat. 



" The cultivating ryot is obliged at the end of the year to borrow 

 money to purchase seed for the ensuing year's cultivation. To obtain 

 this money, there being no one else to lend him, he is driven to the 

 necessity of applying for it to a Putter (P41ghat Brahmin), the greedy 

 nature of whose disposition is beyond anything I ever knew or heard 

 of. That your Board may be able to form some idea of it, I shall 

 here beg leave to state the hardships to which a ryot borrowing money 

 from one of these Putters is frequently subjected. 



" Let it be supposed that a ryot borrows from him 50 fanams at 

 the latter end of the year to purchase seed for sowing. The price of 

 batty (paddy) at this time is generally about 1\ parahs the fanam, at 

 which rate he will get 75 parahs. He then passes a note to the Putter 

 (who will not otherwise lend him a kaas) promising to return his 50 

 fanams within four months at 3 per cent, interest per mensem, in batty 

 on his reaping the first crop at the price at which it may be then 

 current. This current price is never less than 3 parahs, and sometimes 

 3^ and 4 parahs the fanam — let it be reckoned at 3. At the expira- 

 tion of the four months the loan of 50 fanams with interest will amount 

 to 58 fanams, the value of which in grain at 3 parahs the fanam will 

 be 174 parahs. The ryot at this period has to pay the Sircar revenue, 



