The Gazetteers Department

Kolaba district is not a big centre of trade and commerce. With a total population of 9,09,083, trade and commerce account- ed for hardly 9,866 persons in 1951. The percentage of the self-supporting traders and business-men in the total population works out at only 1.1.

The table below gives the number of self-supporting persons engaged in various trades in Kolaba district.

TABLE No. 16

NUMBER OF SELF-SUPPORTING PERSONS ENGAGED IN VARIOUS TRADES IN 1951 IN KOLABA DISTRICT.

Serial No.	Sub-Divisions	Rural			Urban			Total
Serial No.	Sub-Divisions	Employ-ers	Employ-ees	Independent workers	Employ-ers	Employ-ees	Independent workers	Total
1	Retail trade otherwise unclassified	105	163	619	151	139	418	1,595
2	Retail trade in food-stuffs (including beverages and liquid food).	474	560	1,767	594	579	1,223	5,197
3	Retail trade in fuel (including petrol)	12	55	1,434	35	38	42	1,616
4	Retail trade in textile and leather goods	48	49	121	133	60	117	528
5	Wholesale trade in food-stuffs	14	1	139	80	42	92	368
6	Wholesale trade in commodities other than food-stuffs.	4	26	146	20	4	30	230
7	Real Estate	--	1	--	--	--	--	1
8	Insurance	--	18	--	--	4	5	27
9	Money-lending, banking and other financial business.	2	78	34	11	160	19	304
Total		659	951	4,260	1,024	1,026	1,946	9,866

Of 9,866 self-supporting persons, 5,870 were from rural areas and the remaining 3,996 were from urban areas. This brings home the fact that from the point of view of employment, trade and commerce are located, to a large extent, in the rural areas. The turnover of trade, however, is larger in urban areas.

Employment in retail trade was higher than in wholesale trade. Retail trade in food-stuffs engaged the largest number of persons, viz., 5,197. In both retail and wholesale trades, the class of independent workers dominated.

The statement below gives the extent of employment in the various categories of trade and commerce during the census years of 1911, 1921 and 1931: -

TABLE No. 17

EXTENT OF EMPLOYMENT IN VARIOUS CATEGORIES OF TRADES IN KOLABA DISTRICT.

Serial No.	Categories of Trade	1911	1921	1931
1	Banks and establishments of credit, exchange and insurance.	647	365	142
2	Brokers commission agents and exporters	34	52	10
3	Trade in textiles	318	305	202
4	Trade in skins, furs, etc.	14	36	9
5	Trade in wood	20	32	37
6	Trade in metals	22	16	6
7	Trade in pottery, bricks, tiles	--	82	18
8	Trade in chemical products	53	--	166
9	Trade in hotels, cafes, restaurants, etc...	392	884	795
10	Other trade in food-stuff	3,848	7,133	--
11	Trade in clothing and other toilet articles	--	30	141
12	Trade in furniture	31	73	94
13	Trade in building material	217	63	8
14	Means of transport	53	69	66
15	Trade in fuel	549	6,921	1,022
16	Trade in articles of luxury and those pertaining to letters, arts and science.	235	339	341
17	Trade of other sorts	387	82	715
Total		6,820	16,482	3,772

This statement is intended to serve as a historical presentation of the pattern and extent of employment in trade and commerce in the district. The table, however, does not give a real picture of the pattern of employment because the basis of the censuses was also far from satisfactory, and there was not a sufficient degree of uniformity in the enumeration of persons employed in various trades.

Employment in trade in food-stuffs during the 1911, 1921 and 1931 censuses was the highest. Kolaba being an exporting centre of firewood and charcoal, employment in fuel trade was also of considerable dimensions. There were very few banking and financial institutions in the district, which explains the low employment in them.

In the following paragraphs is described the structure, organisation and volume of trade in the district.

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