confiscation of its merchandise.
Dadni      The system in which merchants (both Indian and
System     European) gave cash and raw material advances (dadan) to
           the artisans and later bought the finished products. Though
           it originated and grew in Bengal, later it spread to other
           parts of India as well. It is not the same as the ‘putting-out’
           sys-tem insofar as the transactions it covered were still
           sales with the artisan retaining considerable independence.
Damdupat   A rule under which no debtor was liable to pay an amount
           of interest exceeding the principal or original loan itself
           prevalent in western India.
Hundi      An indigenous bill of exchange in Mughal India, it
           promised payment after a specified period (two months or
           less) at a particular place allowing a discount which
           included interest, insurance charges and cost of
           transmission of money. Hundis increasingly became the
           standard form of payment in major commercial
           transactions in the 18th cen- tury. In the long distance trade
           they not only met the requirements of an expanding
           demand for credit, but reduced the risks involved in the
           transmission of cash to distance places. Their business was
           mainly in the hands of professional money changers or
           bankers, called the sarrafs.
Khatbandi  Indenture regulations which bound the artisans of eastern
           India to sell their products exclusively to the English East
           India Company from the late 1770s onwards.
COMMERCIAL CLASSES
Bania     Merchant throughout the subcontinent, in some area he also
          acted as banker or money-changer.
Banjara   Merchant who specialised in the carrying (caravan) trade,
          particulary in grain,  salt, and cattle, throughout India.