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.