cclxxix 



Rs. 70 a candy, when pepper was selling at Rs. 120 m the town. It is 

 also true that they were made to pay for the deficient quantity at the 

 market rate or to give a note of hand engaging to deliver pepper at the 

 next harvest for the amount settled at Rs. 60 or Rs. 70 a candy. This 

 mode of advance has become changed for various reasons. Formerly, 

 there were no cartable roads in the district and the facility of 

 communication between the coast, where the merchants generally lived, 

 and the interior, was wanting. Further, Moplah traders were not 

 many and money was also scarce. Now the state of things is quite the 

 reverse. As the advance of time has brought on so many changes, it 

 must have reacted on the old practice which was ruinous to tenants. 

 They have now grown more intelligent and dualized. They now 

 freely go to towns and learn the market price daily. The present 

 method of advance, as described below, must have been brought on by 

 natural course to suit the convenience of the purchaser and seller. It 

 is a well known fact that tenants in Malabar have no proprietary 

 right in the soil and cannot therefore give sufl&cient guarantee for the 

 money advanced. In cases of non-fulfilment of engagements, merchants 

 must have found considerable difficulty in recovering the amount. On 

 the other hand, tenants must also have seen their own ruin in such 

 bargains. 



" I made careful enquiries among merchants who deal extensively 

 in pepper and coffee. They borrow large sums from the banks and 

 hand them to various middlemen (Moplahs generally) who live in the 

 interior and have moderate means. The rate of interest charged by 

 the bank is generally 12 per cent, per annum or even less. These 

 middlemen are charged at 24 per cent, by merchants and agree to give, 

 for principal and interest, pepper at market rates. They go to different 

 pepper gardens in their neighbourhood, estimate the crops on pepper 

 vines and purchase them for ready money from tenants who are in 

 need of it. Pepper is generally plucked from vines from 15th January 

 to loth February. One would be able to judge the quantity and 

 quality of the crop from September forward. The middlemen com- 

 mence to purchase the crop from August and September. The more 

 it grows to maturity the higher its price rises for two reasons. The 

 merchant has not much to lose in the shape of interest on the sum paid 

 beforehand. Secondly, he will be in a better position to see the state 

 of the crop. He is always shrewd enough not to lose and makes a net 

 profit of 20 per cent, on his borrowed capital in four or five months. 

 He, first of all, estimates the crop by edangalies (nearly equal to Madras 

 measures). For every 100 edangalies of undried pepper, he agrees to 

 pay Rs. 9 or Rs. 10. Seven hundred edangalies of undried pepper, if 

 dried, will be a little more or less than a candy, according to the quality 

 of the crop. He has to bear all charges for plucking and other 

 incidental expenses required for drying and taking it to the market. 

 The rate of purchasing raw pepper on the vines will vary according to 

 the nature of the market in seaport towns and the demand of wholesale 

 merchants. While petty merchants make a clear profit of not less than 

 20 per cent, on their outlay in five months, big merchants in the town 

 have a profit of 1 per cent, per mensem on their borrowed capital from 

 the bank. The middlemen, about the end of February, deliver pepper 

 to wholesale merchants for the amount borrowed and for its interest at 



