BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

PEDLARS

Pedlars, itinerant traders in the villages, were playing quite an important role in the trade organisation of the district in old times when wholesale and retail traders were very few in number in the rural areas. They were providing for some of the sundry needs, e.g., oils, kerosene, sweetmeats, tea, bread and biscuits, dried fruits, fruits and vegetables, handloom and mill-made cloth, hosiery, utensils, carpets, mats, bamboo baskets, toys, spices, bangles, agarbatties, turmeric, red powder, etc. However, with the development of trade and increase in the number of retail shops and weekly bazars their importance declined. The villagers, now-a-days, prefer to buy from shops and bazars. Pedlars are, however, found in all the talukas of Kolaba district. Due to lack of records their number in the district is not available.

Some of them belong to professional classes, e.g., oilmen, weavers, gardeners and tailors. However, many of them buy articles in towns and sell in villages. They carry their goods on ponies, bullocks, or in S. T. buses and sometimes on their shoulders and on bicycles. They obtain their stock-in-trade from Panvel, Pen. Alibag, Mahad. Murud, Shriwardhan, Uran, Karjat and sometimes from Kalyan and Bombay. Most of their transactions are on cash basis, though barter system is also prevalent in the district on a small scale. Grains arc sometimes bartered for vegetables, fruits, ice-cream, spices, earthen pots, mats, baskets, grinding stones, red powder, etc. Sellers of utensils of brass, copper, aluminium, etc. exchange their articles for old clothes, which they sell after darning and washing.

Their business declines in the rainy season when it becomes very difficult for them to move out with the goods. In rainy season a few of them take to other occupations.

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