Banking Institutions and History

What, according to the writer, was the factor that gave fillip to indigenous banking during the Mughal rule?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Before the indigenous bankers came into existence, the custom seems to have been to hoard capital wealth or deposit it with a friend. Gradually hawkers and guilds began to receive deposits and hold them as trust properties. No definite information is available whether they received deposits on payment of interest or for safe custody only. The Arthashastra lays down definite rules for the hoarding and utilization of wealth on interest, but is silent on the subject of deposit banking. Most early bankers were, however, traders who combined trade with banking.

There is evidence to show that in all important trade centers of the Buddhist period, there lived many bankers of great influence, who occupied prominent positions in guilds of commercial and industrial activities. Their main function was to finance traders, merchant adventurers or explorers in search of valuable materials, and kings in times of war and financial stress. Lending money on interest was common, the loans being secured by mortgage, by pledge of movables, or by surety. The Dharma Shastras, though in general agreement with the Arthashastra, introduced caste as an important factor in money lending, expectedly to the advantage of the higher castes.

During the early dynasties of the Muslim period, Multanis and Shroffs financed internal trade and commerce between different centres and acted as bankers to the Muslim rulers. It appears from the writings of a few Muslim historians, European travellers, State records and the Ain-e-Akbari, that both under the early Muslim and Mughal rulers in India, indigenous bankers played a prominent part in lending money, financing internal and foreign trade with cash or bills, and giving financial assistance to rulers. The Imperial Gazetteer records that Feroz Shah (1351-86) borrowed large sums of money from the Banker of Sasoti of Delhi for payment to his army. The soldiers of Delhi were paid by cash orders, italaq, in outlyhing places. These were discounted at Delhi by financiers who made a regular business of it and earned a good income.

Lending money on interest was therefore quite common, and steps were taken by the State to keep a check on usurers. Evidence shows that in the last quarter of the sixteenth century the Vaniks in Bengal charged interest at more than 500 per cent. As mentioned in the report of the United Provinces Banking Enquiry Committee, some indigenous bankers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were so powerful that they were comparable with private banking houses in any other country, and seem to have fulfilled many of the functions of a central bank.

During the Mughal rule the issue of various kinds of metallic money in different parts of the country gave the indigenous bankers great opportunities for developing the very profitable business of money changing, revenue collectors, bankers and money changers to government in various parts of the empire. Many of them wielded great influence in the country.

What was the earliest known custom, according to the writer, that became a precursor to indigenous banking?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Before the indigenous bankers came into existence, the custom seems to have been to hoard capital wealth or deposit it with a friend. Gradually hawkers and guilds began to receive deposits and hold them as trust properties. No definite information is available whether they received deposits on payment of interest or for safe custody only. The Arthashastra lays down definite rules for the hoarding and utilization of wealth on interest, but is silent on the subject of deposit banking. Most early bankers were, however, traders who combined trade with banking.

There is evidence to show that in all important trade centers of the Buddhist period, there lived many bankers of great influence, who occupied prominent positions in guilds of commercial and industrial activities. Their main function was to finance traders, merchant adventurers or explorers in search of valuable materials, and kings in times of war and financial stress. Lending money on interest was common, the loans being secured by mortgage, by pledge of movables, or by surety. The Dharma Shastras, though in general agreement with the Arthashastra, introduced caste as an important factor in money lending, expectedly to the advantage of the higher castes.

During the early dynasties of the Muslim period, Multanis and Shroffs financed internal trade and commerce between different centres and acted as bankers to the Muslim rulers. It appears from the writings of a few Muslim historians, European travellers, State records and the Ain-e-Akbari, that both under the early Muslim and Mughal rulers in India, indigenous bankers played a prominent part in lending money, financing internal and foreign trade with cash or bills, and giving financial assistance to rulers. The Imperial Gazetteer records that Feroz Shah (1351-86) borrowed large sums of money from the Banker of Sasoti of Delhi for payment to his army. The soldiers of Delhi were paid by cash orders, italaq, in outlyhing places. These were discounted at Delhi by financiers who made a regular business of it and earned a good income.

Lending money on interest was therefore quite common, and steps were taken by the State to keep a check on usurers. Evidence shows that in the last quarter of the sixteenth century the Vaniks in Bengal charged interest at more than 500 per cent. As mentioned in the report of the United Provinces Banking Enquiry Committee, some indigenous bankers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were so powerful that they were comparable with private banking houses in any other country, and seem to have fulfilled many of the functions of a central bank.

During the Mughal rule the issue of various kinds of metallic money in different parts of the country gave the indigenous bankers great opportunities for developing the very profitable business of money changing, revenue collectors, bankers and money changers to government in various parts of the empire. Many of them wielded great influence in the country.

What will be the appropriate title of this passage?

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

Before the indigenous bankers came into existence, the custom seems to have been to hoard capital wealth or deposit it with a friend. Gradually hawkers and guilds began to receive deposits and hold them as trust properties. No definite information is available whether they received deposits on payment of interest or for safe custody only. The Arthashastra lays down definite rules for the hoarding and utilization of wealth on interest, but is silent on the subject of deposit banking. Most early bankers were, however, traders who combined trade with banking.

There is evidence to show that in all important trade centers of the Buddhist period, there lived many bankers of great influence, who occupied prominent positions in guilds of commercial and industrial activities. Their main function was to finance traders, merchant adventurers or explorers in search of valuable materials, and kings in times of war and financial stress. Lending money on interest was common, the loans being secured by mortgage, by pledge of movables, or by surety. The Dharma Shastras, though in general agreement with the Arthashastra, introduced caste as an important factor in money lending, expectedly to the advantage of the higher castes.

During the early dynasties of the Muslim period, Multanis and Shroffs financed internal trade and commerce between different centres and acted as bankers to the Muslim rulers. It appears from the writings of a few Muslim historians, European travellers, State records and the Ain-e-Akbari, that both under the early Muslim and Mughal rulers in India, indigenous bankers played a prominent part in lending money, financing internal and foreign trade with cash or bills, and giving financial assistance to rulers. The Imperial Gazetteer records that Feroz Shah (1351-86) borrowed large sums of money from the Banker of Sasoti of Delhi for payment to his army. The soldiers of Delhi were paid by cash orders, italaq, in outlyhing places. These were discounted at Delhi by financiers who made a regular business of it and earned a good income.

Lending money on interest was therefore quite common, and steps were taken by the State to keep a check on usurers. Evidence shows that in the last quarter of the sixteenth century the Vaniks in Bengal charged interest at more than 500 per cent. As mentioned in the report of the United Provinces Banking Enquiry Committee, some indigenous bankers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were so powerful that they were comparable with private banking houses in any other country, and seem to have fulfilled many of the functions of a central bank.

During the Mughal rule the issue of various kinds of metallic money in different parts of the country gave the indigenous bankers great opportunities for developing the very profitable business of money changing, revenue collectors, bankers and money changers to government in various parts of the empire. Many of them wielded great influence in the country.