Published Paper Details:

The execution of financial and banking agreements is frequently perceived to reside within the purview of governmental legal provisions. This study examines a particular instance of self-enforcing financial contracts within the banking framework of nineteenth-century South India. The Chettiars, a caste of merchant-bankers, depended on religious uniformity as well as a practice of endogamous marriage, wherein members exclusively united with others from the same community, to uphold banking contracts within their structure. Recognized as a significant source of credit both locally and across Southeast Asia, this paper delineates and scrutinizes the mechanisms of enforcement that were operational in the absence of governmental intervention. In addition to introducing a new case of self-enforced financial contracts, this paper also offers an innovative perspective on the interpretation of the social institution of caste, as analyzed through the lens of rational choice theory