The progress of administration, bringing with it easy and safe transit
all over the country; the institution of a complete system of civil
justice and the stringent enforcement of contracts through the courts;
the introduction of cash coinage as the basis of all transactions;
and the grant of proprietary and transferable rights in land,
appear to have at the same time enhanced the Bania's prosperity
and increased the harshness and rapacity of his dealings. When the
moneylender lived in the village he had an interest in the solvency
of the tenants who constituted his clientèle and was also amenable
to public opinion, even though not of his own caste. For it would
clearly be an impossibly unpleasant position for him to meet no one
but bitter enemies whenever he set foot outside his house, and to go
to bed in nightly fear of being dacoited and murdered by a combination
of his next-door neighbours. He therefore probably adopted the motto
of live and let live, and conducted his transactions on a basis of
custom, like the other traders and artisans who lived among the
village community. But with the rise of the large banking-houses
whose dealings are conducted through agents over considerable tracts
of country, public opinion can no longer act. The agent looks mainly
to his principal, and the latter has no interest in or regard for
the cultivators of distant villages. He cares only for his profit,
and his business is conducted with a single view to that end. He
himself has no public opinion to face, as he lives in a town among a
community of his caste-fellows, and here absolutely no discredit is
attached to grinding the faces of the poor, but on the contrary the
honour and consideration accruing to him are in direct proportion to
his wealth. The agent may have some compunction, but his first aim is
to please his principal, and as he is often a sojourner liable to early
transfer he cares little what may be said or thought about him locally.