ABSTRACT
There was a general feeling in the bazaar that the British banks gave poor references to foreign manufacturers regarding the credit of Indian merchants, undermining the whole position of the latter in foreign trade. The Great Depression hit the foundations of these widespread upcountry buying organizations of the international export houses. A large part of the inland trade between different upcountry multi-markets which never touched the ports at all was now financed by Bombay and Calcutta. Such inland inter-mandi commercial transactions had always, of course, formed the overwhelming proportion of Indian trade. Dutt, India Today. Economic inertia and mass poverty remained the influential features of late-colonial India: at constant prices, per capita national income has been assessed as Rs 60.4 in 1916-1917, and only Rs 60.7 in 1946-1947.
