History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.561.4

v4.c63.561.4

157 leaves the rate of interest in the case of seafaring merchants to those who are clever in these matters and who know the proper time and place. Kauṭ. (III. 11) states⁶⁸⁸ that the prescribed (*dharmya*) rate of interest is 1¼ *paṇa* per cent per month, but in transactions (or in commercial usage) it is five paṇas per cent per month (as the highest, it appears), that those who traverse forests and those who carry on maritime trade should pay respectively ten and twenty per cent per month, that those who exceed or induce creditors to exceed these rates should be punished with the first amercement, that each of the witnesses to such usurious transactions should be punished with half of the above fine.