Capital.

THE 1872 census returns showed thirty-eight bankers, eight moneychangers, and 2347 merchants and traders. Under Capitalists and Traders the 1878 license-tax assessment papers showed 5927 persons, chiefly Brahmans, Prabhus, Marathas, Gujarat Vanis, and Musalmans. Of these, 2951 had yearly incomes from £10 to £15 (Rs.100-Rs. 150); 621 from £15 to £25 (Rs. 150-Rs.250); 1343 from £25 to £35 (Rs. 250-Rs. 350);210 from £35 to £50 (Rs. 350-Rs, 500); 304 from £50 to £75 (Rs. 500-Rs. 750); 167 from £75 to £100 (Rs. 750-Rs. 1000); 71 from £100 to £125 (Rs. 1000-Rs. 1250); 97 from £125 to £150 (Rs. 1250-Rs. 1500); 60 from £150 to £200 (Rs. 1500-Rs. 2000); 47 from £200 to £300 (Rs. 2000-Rs. 3000); 22 from £300 to £400 (Rs, 3000-Rs. 4000); 16 from £400 to £500 (Rs. 4000-Rs. 5000); 8 from £500 to £750 (Rs. 5000-Rs. 7500); 5 from £750 to £1000 (Rs. 7500-Rs. 10,000); and 5 over £1000 (Rs. 10,000).

Currency.

The only coins that were struck by Angria's government were the Alibag-Kolaba or old rupee, the Janjira-Kolaba or new rupee, and the Alibag copper pice. [In 1842 the Bombay mint assay tables show, that the average weight of the old Alibag rugee was 171.64 grains, its touch 84.75, and the amount of pure metal it contained 145.464 grains. Rs. 88.160 equalled 100 Bombay currency rupees. Eight years later (1850) the average weight was 170.96 grains, its touch 84.42, and the amount of pure metal it contained 144.324 grains. 87.469 old rupees equalled 100 Bombay currency rupees. In both of these years the average weight of the newrupee was 171.36 grains, its touch 78.25, and the amount of pure metal 134.089 grains. 81.266 new rupees equalled Rs. 100 of the Bombay currency. Bom. Gov. Sel. VII. (New Series); 108.] The old rupee was the first in circulation and bore a Persian inscription. The new rupee had on both sides the Marathi word shri with a small drilled hole. [The new coin was issued because the East India Company forbade petty chieftains coining. As a special case they allowed the Alibag mint to issue a silver coin of inferior value which did not circulate beyond the limits of the state.] The Alibag pice, though issued from Angria's mint, bore the stamp of the king of Satara. At present (1882) the Imperial currency has almost entirely taken the place of the older coinage.

Bankers.

There are no large banking establishments in the district. Money-lending is generally carried on by village shopkeepers, most of whom are Marwar, Gujarat, and Marathi Vanis.

Exchange Bills.

In 1854 there was one banking house at Alibag from which exchange bills, or hundis, were issued on Bombay, Poona, and Benares. The rates of commission to Bombay from November to May were a quarter per cent, and from June to October half a per cent; to Poona one per cent; and to Benares from two to three per cent. Drafts were seldom given for larger sums than £500 (Rs. 5000); but in emergent cases bills could be obtained for as much as £2500 (Rs. 25,000). The estimated yearly transactions in exchange bills amounted to not more than £1500 (Rs. 15,000). At present (1882) exchange bills are issued for any amount between 10s. and £500 (Rs. 5-Rs. 5000) on Bombay, Ahmedabad, Poona, Satara, and Chiplun and Khed in Ratnagiri. The bills are usually granted payable after short intervals, and sometimes at sight. For short intervals the discount varies from one-half to two per cent, and, if the bill is payable at sight, the interest is somewhat higher. There are about nine bill-brokers in the district, four in Mahad, three in Mangaon, and two in Pen. Of late years post-office money-orders have, to a great extent, taken the place of exchange bills.. Insurance is unknown.

Saving Classes.

In towns the classes who save are traders, pleaders, high Government servants, and large landowners. Of their savings, it has been roughly estimated that they generally spend about one-eighth in the celebration of domestic events, one-eighth in ornaments and house building, and the remaining six-eighths in buying land or in trade. Instead of money fees pleaders are occasionally paid in land. In the rural parts village moneylenders and shopkeepers alone lay by money. Agris in Pen who work in salt-pans, and the coast Kolis who are employed in fishing and sea-trading are generally fairly well-off. The Alibag coast Bhandaris were formerly well-to-do; but since the passing of the Excise Regulations of 1879, their condition has declined. [Before the passing of Act V. of 1878 a Bhandari woman was scarcely erer men working in the field; now it is a common sight. Mr. C. S. Chitnis, Acting Huzur Deputy Collector.] Cultivators as a class are not generally in a position to save; with them the possession of capital is the exception and the want of capital the rule.

Investments.

Since the introduction of the Revenue Survey (1854) land has been in great request among almost all classes, but there is little in the market as landholders do not part with their holdings unless they are forced to sell. In consequence of the keen competition among buyers, an acre of ordinary rice land fetches from £10 to £30 (Rs. 100-Rs. 300). At civil court sales, or, on the failure of a husbandman to pay the Government assessment, traders occasionally bid for lands. Some of the Pen capitalists invest from £500 to £1000 (Rs. 5000 -Rs. 10,000) in the reclamation of salt marshes. Traders invest part of their savings in trade, but most in money-lending. In towns, where there is the prospect of a fair rent, rich traders sometimes invest money in house-building. Such cases are rare, and the general feeling is that house-building is not a profitable investment. All classes are anxious to own a good house. Brahmans, Khatris, Gujarat and Marwar Vanis, Shenvis, Malis in Alibag, and Beni-Israels, Musalmans, and Agris in Pen are the chief builders and improvers of houses. A man who makes money generally pulls down the strong, ill-lighted, and thatched building in which his forefathers lived, when the chief object was to avoid the display of wealth, and in its place raises a showy house, two-storied, tiled, airy, and, if he can afford it, decorated outside with carvings and pictures. Show is more sought after than strength, and many of the newer houses are built of inferior materials. Except seven or eight Roha Musalmans who have boats of their own, the shipping of the district either belongs to, or is mortgaged to, members of the trading classes. The number of people who buy Government securities is very small. Few investors, except officials, are satisfied with the low rates of interest paid by the Government Savings Bank. At the close of the year 1880-81 (31st March) the amount of the Savings Bank deposits was £985 (Rs. 9850) against £684 (Rs. 6840) in 1877-78.

Moneylenders.

The leading moneylenders are Gujarat Vanis, Marwar Vanis, and Brahmans. Next to them come Sonars, a few Marathi Vanis, Musalmans, and Shimpis. A few Prabhus, Malis, Kolis, Kasars, Shenvis, and Beni-Israels, and, in the salt villages, Agris also lend money. Almost all the smaller usurers have some other calling such as shopkeeping or husbandry. The richest moneylender in the district lives in the Alibag sub-division, and is said to be worth about £30,000 (Rs. 3,00,000). In Roha there are five worth from £5000 to £15,000 (Rs. 50,000 - Rs. 1,50,000); in Pen there are two worth about £10,000 (Rs. 1,00,000) each, two worth about £7500 (Rs. 75,000) each, three worth about £5000 (Rs. 50,000) each, ten worth from £2500 to £5000 (Rs. 25,000-Rs. 50,000), and thirty worth from £1000 to £2500. (Rs. 10,000-Rs.25,000); in Mahad there are three worth about £7500 (Rs. 75,000), and five worth about £5000 (Rs. 50,000); in Mangaon there is at Ghodegaon a Gujarat Vani worth £10,000 (Rs. 1,00,000), and, at Morbe, a Sonar worth about £7500 (Rs. 75,000); and five worth about £5000 (Rs. 50,000) in other parts of the sub-division. Besides being large landholders and contractors, these men invest part of their capital in buying cloth, wood, opium, silver, gold, salt, and grain.

There is no regular system of book-keeping. The accounts are written sometimes in Marathi, sometimes in Gujarati, and sometimes in Marwari. Some keep a rough daybook, kacha-kharda, in which all transactions are at once entered in detail; [Marwar Vanis keep this account-book and deny that they keep it.] some keep a proper daybook rojmel in which entries are made at intervals of a week or as it suits the account-keeper; some keep the baithi khatevahi in which the borrower enters in his own hand the sums borrowed with, if necessary, a receipt stamp affixed, the lender entering sums paid from time to time on the opposite side. About one-tenth of the moneylenders write their accounts on loose pieces of paper, and, some keep no accounts beyond making entries on the back of the bonds. They are sufficiently protected by bonds and mortgage deeds, or by pawned ornaments.

Lenders deal with all classes of borrowers. None of them confine their dealings either entirely to the rich or entirely to the poor. In large towns landholding moneylenders lend their tenants rice and nachni for seed and for food without security. It is not usual to advance grain to other peoples' tenants, and, when' advances are made, ornaments are required in pledge. Grain-advances are repaid either in money or in kind; if in money with interest at the market rates of the days if in kind double the quantity of grain advanced for food and half as much again as that lent for seed are required. The village moneylender is almost always a Gujarat or a Marwar Vani who keeps a store of rice, cloth, tobacco, and groceries. The villagers buy from him on credit at high prices and pay at harvest in grain. Frequently in the months after harvest they bring rice to the village shopkeeper and exchange it for stores. In the Pen salt-land villages many Agri landholders and village headmen lend money and grain, and buy or take in pawn the holdings of the poorer husbandmen. Their reputation as creditors is not bad. In khot villages about ten per cent of the khots lend money and grain. Khots are not thought hard in their dealings. They seldom buy land or take land in mortgage. Marwar and local Vani lenders are universally hated. They charge high interest, deceive their debtors by failing to credit them with payments, have underhand dealings with the subordinate officers of the courts, harass their debtors with distress warrants, force their debtors to mortgage their land, and sell their debtors' houses, or imprison them in the civil jail.

Interest.

In 1854, the yearly cash rates of interest varied, to rich borrowers, from seven to nine per cent with pawn, and from twelve to fifteen per cent without pawn; to middle class borrowers with small estates, the rates varied from eighteen to thirty-seven per cent; and to husbandmen and labourers from forty to two hundred per cent. The current (1882) rates, in small dealings when an article is pawned, vary from one per cent to 3¼ per cent a month; in petty agricultural advances, both on personal security and with a lien on crops, from 1½ to 3¼ per cent a month; in large dealings, with a mortgage on movable property, from a half to one per cent a month, and, with a mortgage on immovable property, from three-quarters in Nagothna to one per cent a month in Mahad; and to labourers, on the personal security of himself and a friend, from one and a half to two per cent a month. The monthly rate of interest, to a rich husbandman or artisan, is from three-eighths to five-eighth per cent; to one in middling circumstances from three-quarters to one and a half per cent; and to one in a poor state from two to six per cent.

In dealings with the poorer husbandmen especially when grain is advanced, interest is charged in kind and the crops made security, manoti, for the payment of the interest. At harvest time the crop is handed to the lender, who, after deducting what is due as interest, pays the borrower for the balance at the market rate of grain in certain specified months. A clear yearly profit of from six to twelve per cent is thought a fair return for capital sunk in land. Traders and shopkeepers among themselves charge interest for the samvat year beginning from Kartik (November). In other transactions some charge for the calendar year and some from the date mentioned in the bond.

Borrowers.

Middling and small traders carry, on their business either partly or entirely on borrowed capital. In Mahad and Mangaon nearly all, and, in the rest of the district, at least half of the husbandmen, who are registered occupants, have to borrow on the security of the growing crop. Except in Mangaon and Mahad, where high assessments are said sometimes to force landholders to borrow, the husbandman's indebtedness is due to want of thrift and forethought. Once in debt, it is difficult for a husbandman to free himself from his creditor. Field wages are seldom high enough, to support landless workers for more than seven months in the year. But there is a fair miscellaneous local demand for labour, and considerable sums are earned by cart traffic along the main lines of road, and, by pack-bullock traffic, in the wilder parts of Mahad and Mangaon. In November and December, when the rice crop is housed, many Marathas and Mhars go to Bombay, where they work as labourers till the end of May, and then return to their fields. Many Marathas and Mhars in Mahad, and a few in other sub-divisions, support themselves by military service. Besides large remittances sent by men on service, about £9500 (Rs. 95,000) are yearly paid by the state to military pensioners chiefly in Mahad, The poorer classes in Kolaba, on the whole, spend larger sums on marriage and other family occasions than the corresponding classes in Ratnagiri, and quite as much as the corresponding classes in the Deccan. They generally have to borrow from £5 to £6 (Rs. 50-Rs. 60) to pay for their daughters' weddings, but they do not, on this account, lower their family expenses, until the debt begins to be collected, and the lender gets the crop or the land into his hands. The season of greatest distress is from' May to November.' It is generally about this time that moneylenders drive their hardest bargains. Indebtedness is so general that the grain dealer and the moneylender are everywhere a necessity. The borrowers admit the usefulness of the lenders, and, on the whole, are satisfied with their terms. Of the larger landholders or khots a considerable number are said to be in debt. The village income is in most cases too small, to support the numerous sharers who find it difficult to get what they consider suitable employment.

Borrowers, as a rule, deal with one lender only. When seriously involved and hard-pressed, or when unable to get further advances, they sometimes open an account with a fresh creditor. Some debtors, it is said, owe money to as many as ten lenders, but the lenders seldom combine to take steps against the debtor for their common good. Competition is generally keen. Each lender does his best to secure for himself the largest possible share of the debtor's property, getting decrees against his crop, or seizing it as soon as it is reaped. A debt is hardly ever written off as a bad debt, and outstanding balances are brought down year by year for more than twenty-five years. Agrarian crimes, due to the pressure of creditors, were common before 1875; since 1875 no cases have occurred. The offenders Were generally Kunbis and Mhars, and the victims Marwar Vanis. [In 1869 in two cases, one in Alibag and the other in Mahad, debtors banded together and robbed some Marwar Vanis of their bonds and account books. In 1871 three Marwar moneylenders were killed in Pen. In 1873 the people of some villages in Alibag stoned some Marwar Vanis to death; and three Mhars were charged with murdering a Prabhu moneylender. In 1875 a Marwar Vani was robbed of valuable securities in Alibag.]

Land Mortgage.

Land mortgages are common. Many Kunbis, Kolis, and Agris raise money to meet their marriage and other family expenses by mortgaging their lands. Creditors often take the mortgaged lands into their possession, and, after paying the Government cess, devote the surplus first to the payment of interest, and then, if anything remains, to the reduction of the original debt. Another mode is to apply the net profit to the payment of interest, the debtor undertaking to pay the Government cess. In some instances the debtor continues to hold the land, pays the assessment and interest, and keeps the surplus. In some cases the mortgagee forecloses the mortgage and has the land entered in his name. But, as a rule, the land remains in the name of the husbandman, and the husbandman and the mortgagee share the crop. When land has' been made over to the lender or mortgagee the former holder is generally kept as a tenant. In rice land the common agreement, known as half share or ardhelp is that each party takes an equal share, and that the landlord pays the Government assessment. In uplands the ordinary agreement is that the tenant gives one-third of the produce.

Labour Mortgage.

About one-sixteenth of the cultivating and labouring classes are believed to mortgage their labour to moneylenders, obtaining in return from £6 to £8 (Rs. 60-Rs. 80) to spend on marriages or on other family events. If the master binds himself to provide the borrower with food and clothing, the yearly pay of the servant varies from 12s. to £1 10s. (Rs. 6-Rs. 16); and, if the servant has to find his own food, it varies from £1 4s. to £2 10s. (Rs.12-Rs.25). At these rates a man would serve from four to eight years for a £10 (Rs. 100) loan. Except in rare cases service is never pledged in advance. While he is working off his debt the bondsman cannot make any private earnings. But the master has no claim on the services of the bondsman's wife or of his children. It is not usual for the master to pay the debtor's incidental expenses at births and on other family occasions, nor, unless he wishes him to live in his house, is it usual for the master to provide the labourer with shelter. These mortgages of labour are personal; they never become hereditary. The debtors generally faithfully fulfil their engagements, and do not leave their masters' service for better-paid employment. There are no hereditary servants.

Craftsmen

Craftsmen, as a rule, borrow money on easier terms than husbandmen. The number of skilled town craftsmen whose work commands high wages is small. The few that are found, though more prosperous than the other wage-earning classes, are not free from debt. Village craftsmen, shoemakers, carpenters, and blacksmiths, though not soberer or more frugal, are somewhat shrewder, better off, and readier to send their boys to school than most Maratha or Kunbi husbandmen.

Wages.

Till the middle of the present century (1845), carpenters, bricklayers, and masons were paid from 6d. to 9d. (4-6 as.) a day. From 1845 to 1860 their wages ranged from 9d. to 1s. (6-8 as.), and from 1860 to 1876 from 1s. to 1s. 9d. (8-14 as.). In 1881 the daily wages of a carpenter varied from Is. to 2s. (8 as.-Re. 1), of a mason from 10½d. to 1s. 6d. (7 -12 as.), and of a bricklayer from 6d. to 9d. (4-6 as.). The high price of skilled labour is due partly to the uncertainty of their work, and partly to the limited supply of skilled labour. Up to 1850 labourers were paid from 2¼d. to 3d. (1½-2 as.) a day, between 1850 and 1865 from 3d. to4½d. (2-3 as.), and between 1865 and 1876 from 4½d. to 6d. (3-4 as.). Up to 1850, the daily wage of a female labourer was 2¼d. (as. 1½), from 1851 to 1866 3d. (as. 2), and from 1867 to 1876 4½. (as. 3). In 1881 a male labourer earned from 3¾d. to 4½d. (2½-3 as.), and a female labourer from 2¼d. to 3¾d. (1½-2½ as.). Since 1850 children's daily wages have risen from ½- to 2¼d. (1 anna-1½ as.). This rise in wages has, to some extent, been due to the increased cost of the ordinary food grains. Except in very few cases, wages are paid in cash daily, when the work lasts for only a week or two, and half-weekly or weekly when the engagement is for a longer period. Unskilled labourers work from about sunrise to sunset with two hours' rest for their midday meal. Women are generally engaged on field work, but, if higher rates offer, they turn their hands to other branches of labour.

In spite of the great rise in wages the condition of the rural labourers is said to show few signs of improvement. This is partly due to the increased cost of living, but more to their love of drink, and to the thoughtlessness with which they run into debt. In large towns, where labourers are better off, they spend their surplus earnings first on liquor, then on clothes, and lastly on ornaments and better food. Before, during, and after the rains is the busy season, when all landholders want help to prepare, weed, and reap their rice fields. At other times labourers are employed in housebuilding, road-work, cutting grass and fuel, and carrying burdens.

Prices.

During the 1803-04 famine the price of husked rice was 3½ pounds the rupee, and of cleaned rice two pounds the rupee. For such years as they are available before 1849-50, the price returns show, cheap grain, the rupee price of the first sort of rice, the food of, the upper classes, varying from 110¼ pounds in 1841-42 to 39½ pounds in 1824-25, a year of much scarcity in most parts of the Presidency, and averaging 77¼ pounds. During the same time the rupee price of nachni, Eleusine coracana, varied from eighty-six pounds in 1828-29 to thirty-two pounds in 1824 and averaged 60¼ pounds. The following statement gives the available details:

Kolaba Food Prices, 1817-1849. (Pounds the Rupee).

continued..

The thirty-two years ending 1881-82 may be divided into five periods. The first period of seven years (1850-1856) was a time of cheap grain, the rupee price of nachni varying from ninety-two pounds in 1851-52 to 62¾ pounds in 1856-57 and averaging 76½; while the rupee price of the better sort of rice varied from 116 pounds in 1852-53 to 83½ pounds in 1856-57 and averaged 102¼ pounds. The next six years (1857-1862) was a time of moderate prices, the rupee price of nachni varying from 55½ pounds in' 1857-58 to 42½ in 1859-60 and averaging 50¾; and the rupee price of the better sort of rice varying from seventy-five pounds in 1857-58 to fifty-five pounds in 1859-60 and averaging 63¾ pounds. The next five years (1863-1867) was a time of high prices owing to the American war, the rupee price of nachni varying from thirty-six pounds in 1867-68 to 28½ pounds in 1863-64 and averaging 32¼ pounds; and the rupee price of the better sort of rice varying from 57½ pounds in 1867-68 to 41¼ pounds in 1864-65 and averaging 46¼ pounds. During the fourth period of eight years (1868-1875) prices were again moderate, the rupee price Of nachni varying from fifty-one pounds in 1873-74 to 39½ pounds in 1870-71 and averaging forty-four pounds; and the rupee price of the better sort of rice varying from 61½ pounds in 1873-74 to 48½ pounds in 1869-70 and averaging 54¼ pounds. During the fifth period of six years (1876-1881) grain has again been dear, the rupee price of nachni varying from 53¾ pounds in 1881-82 to twenty-seven pounds in'1877-78 and averdifing 36¼ pounds; and the rupee price of the better sort of rice varying from 63¾ pounds in 1881-82 to thirty-five pounds in 1877-78 and averaging 46¼ pounds. The following statement gives the details:

Kolaba Food Prices, 1850-1881. (Pounds the Rupee).

continued..

Weights.

There are two sorts of weights, one for gold and silver and drugs, the other for brass, iron, copper, lead, sugar, molasses, tobacco, tamarind pods, cocoanuts, clarified butter, vegetables, and oil. The following are the measures for gold, silver, and drugs. Four udids [Udid is the pea of the Phaseolus mungo.] one gunj, [The small red and black seed of the Abrua precatorius.] two gunjs one vol, four vals one masa, twelve masas one tola, [Except in Mahad where it is somewhat heavier, the tola is equal to an Imperial rupee. In Mahad, instead of twelve, 11¼ masas equal one rupee.] and twenty-four tolas one sher [The sher weight is seldom used.] The goldsmith's sher weighs 4320 grains Troy. There are six tola weights of one-fourth, one-half, one, five, ten, and twelve tolas, all made of brass and either cubic or cylindric in form. The masa weights are flat round pieces of lead. In the case of drugs, if the weight is over eleven gunjs, two-anna, four-anna, and eight-anna pieces and rupees are used. Liquid medicines are also weighed according to this scale. The table of measures for other metals, and for sugar, fruit, tobacco, butter, and oil, is two navtakis one pavsher, two pavshers one adsher, two adshers one sher, forty shers one man, and twenty mans one khandi. There, are ten shers, twenty shers, one man, and five man iron weights of a truncated conical shape with a ring fastened to the top. The five sher weight is either a solid lead cylinder about an inch deep or a lead hemisphere covered with copper and furnished with an iron ring. The pavsher, adsher, sher, and two sher weights are round pieces of lead either plain or covered with copper. The sher weighs twenty-eight Imperial rupees or 183.717 drams Avoirdupois. There is no trade in cotton or in precious stones.

Measures.

Rice, grain, salt, safflower seed, sesamum seed, and dried fish are sold by capacity measures according to the following scale: Two tipris one nithva, four nithvas one adholi, two adholis one payli, and six paylis one phara. The phara is a wooden box clamped with iron and with wooden sids handles. Across the top, on a level with the sides, runs a wooden bar plated with iron. When the box is filled, the surplus grain is brushed off by passing a wooden roller over the mouth of the box. The payli, adholi, and sher measures are round pieces of wood, the lower part cylindrical, on which rests a hemisphere with the top sliced off. The nithva and pavsher are cylindrical wooden measures larger at the bottom than at the top, with a raised ridge half way down. The measures used in selling liquor are a sixth sher, a quarter sher, a half sher, and a sher. These are cylinder-shaped tinned-copper-vessels. The oil measures are half a sher, one, five, ten, twenty, and forty shers. They are made. of copper and have handles; the body increases in size from the bottom to the top which is without a rim.

The table of length is twenty-four tasus equal one gaj of twenty-seven inches. There is also a var measure of three feet. The gaj and var are cylindrical iron bars, with marks scored in the surface that divide the var into four and the gaj into eight equal parts. Woollen, cotton, and linen cloth is sold by the var, and in Eevdanda silk, and gold silver and silk trimming are sold by the gaj. Besides by the gaj the Revdanda silk weavers sometimes measure their silks by the ounce of two and a half rupees weight. Cotton waistcloths and women's robes, brought from the Deccan, are sold by the hath measured by the trader from the elbow to the tip of his middle finger. Handkerchiefs and stockings are sold by the dozen. No articles are sold by the score or by the hundred. The cubic contents of building timber are not measured either in sales by the forest department or in private sales. Unless the rafter is unusually long or short the circumference is measured in hatha of about 19 4/5 inches. Firewood is sold by the headload, the bullock-load, or the cartload, estimated at about one man, three mans, and two khandis respectively, or by the man and khandi. The khandi used by the forest department weighs twenty-eight Bombay mans or 784 Surat shers of forty tolas each, or nearly the same number of English pounds. In private sales the ordinary khandi of twenty Bombay mans or 560 Surat forty-tola shers is in use.

Land is measured by the acre and the gunta, or one-fortieth of the acre. The old table of land measures was one bigha of thirty-two guntds equals twenty pdnds, one pand equals twenty square kathis, one kathi equals 5 5/6 hdths, and one hath equals 19 4/5 inches. As moneylenders insist on entering survey measures in all deeds of sale or mortgage, the old bigha and kathi measures are likely to die out, except in a few villages, where, for special reasons at the time of the survey, the land was divided into bighas of thirty-two guntas each.

Bricks are sold by the thousand and roughly hewn stones by the hundred and no excess is allowed. Dressed stones are sold according to the size of the stone and the style of the work. Sand and gravel are sold by the phara of six paylis. Large rough stones and road metal are sold by the heap or baras ten feet long by ten feet broad and one foot high. Masonry is not paid by measurement. The workmen are either paid by the day or a contractor is paid for the whole work.