BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

INTRODUCTION

THIS CHAPTER IS DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS. The first part deals with the operation of the various credit institutions in the district, and the second with the multifarious trade activity that takes place in the district. Both these form an integral part of the economic system of the district and depend for their growth and prosperity upon each other. Both of them, again, have grown enormously during the post-Independence period. although the trade activity in the district has a much chequered and longer history as it dates hack to a remote past. The credit institutions, on the other hand, with the sole exception of the money-lender, have developed only recently. Besides, they belong more or less to the organised sector of the district economy.

Under the British rule and a few years after Independence the district was not a separate entity as it is today, but some of its present talukas were part of the then Satara district and a few others constituted the ex-princely states. The present Sangli district was formed from 1st August 1949.

The only credit agency, that operated from a very long time, was that of money-lenders who catered to the credit needs of the people. In fact, till the implementation of the Bombay Moneylenders' Act of 1946 in this district, he dominated the financial field. But the high rates of interest charged and the malpractices adopted by him only aggravated the poverty of the agricultural population that had already suffered from famines and ancestral debts. The Agricultural Debtor's Relief Act relieved to a large extent the heavy strain of debt over them, and the Money-lenders' Act saved them from the harassment of their creditors. It was only after the formation and the growth of the co-operative movement in the district that the majority of the farmers and cultivators could prosper.

The second part of this chapter describes the commercial and the trade activities in the district which mainly centre round the town of Sangli. Sangli was the capital of the ex-Sangli state and is at present the headquarters of the Sangli district. Its importance, however, lies in its being the chief commercial centre of the Deccan Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of the Krishna, Sangli has benefited from its location in a tract which is extremely rich in the production of agricultural commodities. such as turmeric, jaggery, groundnut, chillis and tobacco. These commodities have a flourishing trade which is further facilitated by the National and State Highways running a distance of over 80.467 km. (50 miles) and by the railway routes passing through the district. One of them is the Southern Railway route running through the eastern part of Walwa, the western part of Tasgaon and the central portion of Miraj taluka. The other route runs from Miraj to Pandharpur and passes through Miraj and Jath talukas.

Besides Sangli a number of other markets have come up in the district during the last thirty years or so. They are Islampur. Jath and others where trade in certain commodities is regulated under the Bombay Agricultural Produce Markets Act of 1939. Through them the Government attempts to regulate the trade in agricultural commodities with a view to stabilising the prices and minimising the uncertainties as regards trade. The establishment of the regulated markets has been useful in yet another way. It has cut across a long chain of the middlemen in the trade and secured to the producers the due value of their produce. The development of these markets along with that of Sangli has considerably increased the volume and the sphere of trade in various agricultural commodities in the district.

Besides the regulated markets, there are a number of places where weekly markets are held. When these markets began to be held is uncertain. They, however, have certainly served and are still serving the needs of local residents, coming especially from the rural areas. A gradual development of these markets with the variety of local weights and measures giving way to the standard ones is indeed an important and interesting commercial process that can find its due place in the present chapter.

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