INDIAN ECONOMY BEFORE BRITISH – Banking and Overseas Trade

Banking

• Hundis – a system worked as bank during medieval period in India like a Bill of Exchange.
• Shroffs (or) Money changers – Checking the party & value of money in current terms and also served as a Local Bankers
• Shroffs had changed the gold or different money into a local money in concern territories.
• It helped further development of merchants.
• Example of shroffs in various parts and their local names

1. Surat – Banias & Parsi merchants
2. Ahmedabad – Nagarseths,
3. Bengal – Jagat seth
4. Coramendal – Nagarathar

Overseas Trade

• Eastern & Western Coastal regions of India controlled Indian Ocean Trade.
• The goods from China first reached Malacca and from there it reached India through Calicut (or) Cambay (or) Surat ports.
• In 16^th Century Calicut lost its important to Gujarat port and it became the center of Indian export.
• The ports of Coromondal coast are intermediate ports for ship from Burma & Malay Peninsula.
• So from this evidences we came to know that India had an excellent trade network even before the arrival of Europeans.