Indian Journal of Economics January 1937

The hundi performed the function of the modern cheque and the transfer of the funds of the clients of the banker was made by book entries. [...] It is not possible here to do more than give a few typical instances to illustrate the above sketchy description of the Mahratta money market in the 18th century in order to indicate the nature of the business of bankers their methods of dealing with their clients and of keeping accounts and the variety of ways in which they met the credit needs of the public and the state. [...] Of all parts of India the Punjab and the North-Western Province show the largest consumption of animal products in the dietary.' 13ut even in the Punjab the bulk of the food constituents and energy values is drawn from the vegetable products. [...] Agriculture in India as elsewhere is economically impossible if the fodder of the working animals must be bought; And the farm must provide it either in the shape of fodder crops or of the bye-products of other crops the straw and stalks (principally those of the jowar bajra maize and now of sugacane and the straw of wheat and gram) which form the bulk of the fodder supply. [...] The result is a close interrelation between the size of a holding the class of crops grown and the number and quality of the cattle employed and it is this which accounts for the violent contrasts between the cattle in different tracts from the costly and powerful animals of large holdings in the Punjab canal colonies the upper Ganges Doab or North Gujrat to the miserable half-starved beasts