BAN
law, by the name ofjhuddcry, under which are comprehended all who live after the manner of merchants, or that deal and tranfact for others, as brokers; exclusive of the mechanics, or artificers, who make another eaft, called wyfe. Thefe banians have no peculiar feet or religion, unlefs it be, that two of the eight general precepts given by their legifiator, Bremaw, to the Indian nation, are, on account of the profemon of the ban- mans, fuppofed more immediately to relate to them, viz. thofe which enjoin veracity in their words and dealings, and avoid- ing all practices of circumvention in buying and felling. Lord, ubi fupra, c. 1 1.
Some of the banians, quitting their profeflion, and retiring from the world, commence religious, aflltme a peculiar habit, and devote themfelves more immediately to God, under the denomination of vertea. Thefe, though they do not hereby change their eaft, are commonly reckoned as bramins of a more devout kind, much as monks in the Romiih church, though frequently not in orders, are reputed as a more facred order than the regular clergy. Lord, c. 10. p. 74. The name banian imports as much in the bramin language, wherein their law is written, as a people innocent and harm- lefs, void of all guile, and fo gentle, that they cannot endure to fee even a fly or worm injured ; and who, when ftruck, will patiently bear it, without refilling or returning the blow. Their mein and appearance is defcribed by Lord, in terms a little precife, but very fignificant : " A people prefented them- <c felves to my eyes, cloathed in linnen garments, fomewhat " low defcending, of a gefture and garb, as I may fay,
- ■' maidenly and well nigh effeminate, of a countenance fhy
" and fomewhat eftranged." Lord, in Introdudt. Gemelli Careri h divides the banians into twenty-two tribes, all diftincr., and not allowed to marry with each other: Lord i aflures us they are divided into eighty-two caffs or tribes, cor- refpondent to the caffs or divifions of the bramins or priefts, under whofe discipline they are, as to religious matters; tho* the generality of the banians choofe to be under the direction
. of the two bramin tribes, the Vifalnagranaugers and Vulnagra- nanaugcrs.— \f Voyag. T. 3. p. 264. ' Lord, c. r2. p. 83.] LaMartintere k mifreprefents our countryman, when he fays, that, according to the Sicur Lord, the banians are of the fame tribe with the bramins; and that the different tribes marry with each other: thefe miftakes he might probably fall into, by reading Lord in a French tranflation '. — [ k La Martin. Di£t. Geogr. T. 2. p. 76. b. ' In Cerem. & Cout. Relig. de tout lesPeuples du Mond. T. 1. P. 2.]
The banians are the great factors, by whom moft of the trade of India is managed : in this refpect, comparable to the Jews and Armenians, and not behind either, in point of fkill and
! experience, in whatever relates to commerce m . Nothing is bought, but by their mediation. They feem to claim a kind of jus divinmn to the adminiftration of the traffic of the nation, grounded on their facred books, as the bramins do to that of religion. They are difperfed, for this purpofe, through all parts of Afia, and abound in Perfia, particularly at Ifpahan and Bender- Abbaffis, where many of them are extremely rich, yet net above acting as brokers, where a penny is to be got. The
- chief agents of the Englifh, Dutch, and French Eaft India companies, are of this nation : they are very faithful, and are generally trailed with the cafh of thofc companies in their keep- ing \ They act alfo as bankers, and can give bills of exchange for moft cities in the Eaft Indies. Their form of contract in buying and felling, is remarkable ; being done without words, in the profoundeft filence, only by touching each other's fin- gers : the buyer looiening his famerin, or girdle, fpreadsiton his knee, and both be and the feller having their hands under- neath, by the intercourfe of the fingers, mark the price of pounds, fhillines, iSc demanded, offered, and at length agreed on °. When the feller takes the buyer's whole hand, it de- notes a thoufaml, and, as many times as he fqueezes it, as many thoufand pagods, or roupies, according to the fpecies in queftion, are demanded : when he only takes the five fingers, it denotes five hundred, and when only one, one hundred : taking only half a finger, to the fecond joint, denotes fifty ; the fmall end of the finger, to the firft joint, flands for ten p. — [ m Vid. Tavern, Voyag. des Ind. c. 32. p. 161. Martiniere, I.e. n Savar. Supp. p. 58. ° Lord, c. 12. p. 84. p Ta- vern. Voyag. des Ind. 1. 2. c. 15.]
BANILLIA, in the materia medica, a name ufed by fome for the vanillia, or vanilloes, ufed in making the fecnted chocolate. Dale, Pharm. p. 340.
BANK, (CyJ.) — In Savari's Dictionary of Commerce, from whence a this article of the Cyclopedia is taken, we have alfo b an account of the banks ai Amfterdam, Hamburg, and of the royal bank of France ; to which we refer the curious, as the
- detail of fuch particular objects do not properly come within our befign.— [* Art. Banco. b Art. Banque.]
. We have feveral accounts of the bank of England ; among others, the Lex Mercatorla, the New View of London, and Maitland's Hiftory of London, may be confulted. But we do not know, whether any fufficiently accurate detail of the me- thod of tranfacting all the bufinefs of the bank, be any where publifhcd.
F< r the two batiks of Scotland, fee the Prefent State of Bri- tain. SufiPL, Vol. I.
BAN
The general political queftions relating to banks, might pro- perly find (heir place here, could we find anv thing accurate or determinate on the fubjea : but rs moft authors we have met with on this topic, have had fume biafs of their own, from, party, or private intereft, not to mention, that few have fuffi- cient experience of bufinefs, or habits of analyfiftg and reafon- ing upon fuch complex objects, we can do little more than wifli to fee this fubject fully treated of by fome mafterly hand. In fuch a work, many important queftions would occur ; fuch as,
The nature of paper credit in general ? its advantages ? difad- vantages ? Whether it be limited? how thofe limits, if any, are to be difcerned ? The nature of banks, and other monied cor- porations ? their advantages and di fad vantages to the public ? Whether there ought to be any public bank in a itate, other than the public treafury ? Whether great monied corporations, though inftituted under a pretence to ferve, and the pretended fcrvants of the adminiftration, he not, in reality, its mafters ? Again, what is the belt form of a bank ? whether what a late French author c fays be true, that the beft bank is that which does not pay, like that of Amfterdam ? or whether the form of the bank of England, and current notes, be beft, &c ?—[ c EfT. Polit. fur le Comm. p. 253. Edit. i.J
The difcerning reader will eafily perceive, that thefe, and the" like queftions, have been either very partially, or fuperficially, treated of, in books and pamphlets of the times ; and that a farther difquifition is neceflary.
Bank is alfo applied, in a more particular manner, to focieties inftituted for lending money on pledges. Of thefe there are feveral in Holland, particularly at Amfterdam, where it is called the bank van hening, or bank of loan. Private perfons are here furnifhed with money, on the depofit of effects as a fecurity, and on payment of a certain intereft regulated by the burger- mailers. This bank is other wife called the Lombard huts, or Lombard koufe, or, fimply, Lombard; which is the name it is moft commonly known by, in moft of the towns iri Holland. Savar. Did. Comm. SuppL p. 43.
Bank, in natural hiftory, denotes an elevation of the ground, or bottom of the fea, fo as fometimes to furmount the furface of the water, or, at leaft, to leave the water fo fhallow, as ufually not to allow a veflel to remain afloat over it. In this fenfe, bank amounts to much the fame with flat, fhoal,
There are banks of fand, and others of ftone, called alfo fhelves, or rocks. In the north fea, they alfo fpeak of banks of ice, which are large pieces of that matter floating. Aubin. Diet. Marin.
A long narrow bank is fometimes called z.rib. The bank abfolutcly fo called, or the main bank, or great bank, denotes that of Newfoundland, the fcene of the cod-fifhery. It is called the great bank, not only by reafon of its vaft ex- tent, being, according to the Englifh computation, two hun- dred miles long, and, according to the French, one hundred leagues, or three hundred miles; but alfo on account of feveral leffer banks near it, where cod are alfo caught. Thefe laft the French call banquezeaux. Savar. Supp. p. 862. The great bank affords fo vaft a crop of cod, as to furnifh one of the chief articles of European commerce. This is one of thofe banks which have water enough to float a fhip, and which, on this account, are not dangerous. Banks are ufually diftinguifhed by a buoy, poft, or the like. On charts, fand banks are ufually marked by little dots, and banks of ftone, by crolTes. The colours of the buoys are alfo varied accordingly; fand banks being denoted by light-coloured buoys, and rocks by black ones.
In large rivers, as the Elbe, &c. fand banks, by high tides and inundations, are liable to change places; care is therefore ta^ ken to fhift the buoys from time to time, to fhew the true channel of the river.
An exact knowledge of the banks, their extent, and the depth of water on them, makes the moft eflential part of the fcience of a pilot, and a mafter of a fhip: if the veflel be large, and draw much water, great attention will be neceflary to keep clear of the banks; on the contrary, if it be fmall, the fame banks afford a fure afylum, where it may brave the largeft and ftouteft veffels, which dare not follow it here. By means of this barrier, many fmall craft has cfcaped its enemy.
Bank, in veflels which go with oars, is ufed for the bench where the rowers are feated ; popularly called, by our feamen, the thaught. Manivayring, Seam. Diet. p. 107. In this feme, we read of banks of gallies, of galeafles, of gal- liottes, of brigantines, arid the like.
The Venetian gondolas have no bank s ; for the watermen row ftanding.
The common gallies have twenty-five banks, that is, twenty- five on each fide, in all fifty banks, with one oar to each bank, and four or five men to each oar. The galeafles have thirty- two banks on a fide, and fix or feverj rowers to a bank. Aubin, Diet. Marin, p. 62.
Bank alfo denotes an elevation of earth, itones, ftakes, or other materials, in form of a wall, or caufeway, to flop the waters, and prevent inundations. Vid. Ozanavi, Diet. Mathemat. P-357-
Thele, on other occafions, are denominated dams, and fea- 4 K walls,
