BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

INTRODUCTION

THE PRESENT CHAPTER IS DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS, (1) Banking and Finance and (2) Trade and Commerce. The first part, viz., Banking and Finance chiefly describes the modern joint-stock banks in the district along with a number of other institutions, such as, the money-lenders, the co-operative societies and the insurance companies that play a prominent role in catering to the credit requirements of the district economy. Of these, the money-lender had been the most important institution in the past. He still continues to be an important source of credit supply to the people in the district whether as an indigenous banker in the town or as a shopkeeper supplying credit to the village folk or even as a petty pawn-broker. But the excessive rates of interest charged by him and the malpractices he adopted to exact money from the poor proved detrimental to the economic well-being of the people in the past. It was with a view to putting a stop to this evil that the Central Provinces and Berar Moneylenders Act, 1934 was passed and applied to the whole of the district. This Act subsequently removed the malpractices of moneylenders and sought to extend protection to the debtors. Another significant trend that helped to restrain the moneylender's influence was the growth of modern banking in the district following World War I. Especially after the establishment of the State Bank of India, the banking business received a further stimulus.

Development in the field of banking was accompanied by a still greater development in the field of co-operation. A large network of co-operative societies spread all over the district covering as it does, not only the agricultural primaries of the early years but also the modern industrial and service co-operatives of today is, therefore, its natural outcome.

Besides purveying credit to the economy, these institutions also collect the savings of the people in the form of premia and invest them in the interest yielding securities. The insurance and the joint-stock companies need in this context a specific mention. The post-war period has made a remarkable progress in case of both these institutions.

The financial set-up in the district has significant bearings on the pattern of its trade and commercial activities. The growth of banking and other financial institutions and increasing facilities made available to the public, help the movement of goods and infuse briskness in trade. Price policies adopted from time to time by the State also affect the market trend and determine ultimately the composition of trade. In the second part of this chapter arc, therefore, discussed the factors that have contributed to the development of trade and commerce in the district.

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