Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c6.s2.t2.16

c6.s2.t2.16

⁶ Compare *Encyclopaedia Britannica*, 1929 Edition, Vol. III, 44, how among other functions banking provides : (1) Safe keeping for people's money. (2) A temporary investment for money paying interest so long as the money is retained and repaying the principal on its being claimed in accordance with the contract. (3) The provision of a means of payment—in credit money, Bank Notes and cheques, etc.; compare also Jain, 10, for a definition of indigenous banking of India. ‘Any individual or private firm, which, in addition to making loans, either receives deposits or deals in hundis or both’: also illustration in W.M., 31b, from the reign of the Lodis. Compare the opinion of Barani, how sometimes the indebted nobles transferred to these native bankers the right of holding a revenue-assignment or *Aqta* for a money consideration or a cash payment in advance (*vide* B., 63). Similarly Jain, 10, for *Itlaq* or the system of ‘cash-cards’ which developed under Sultan Firuz Tughluq. The soldiers were paid these cash-cards by the State in outlying places and the financiers of Delhi discounted them at a fixed rate of commission.