The chief articles of import are cotton goods, cotton yarn, metals, sugar, mineral oils, machinery and mill-work, woollen manufactures, provisions, hardware and cutlery, silk, liquors, apparel, railway material and chemicals. Cotton manufactures and yarns are imported almost exclusively from the United Kingdom, and amount to about 40% of the total trade. Metals, including hardware and cutlery, railway material, &c., supply about a fifth. The only other important article of import is sugar, which came to about 5 millions in 1905-1906. The balance of trade is always against India, because she is a debtor country, and has to pay interest on borrowed capital, and the "home charges" for the upkeep of the civil and military services and of the secretary of state's establishment in London. The total imports for 1905-1906 were valued at 82½ millions sterling, including 14 millions of gold and silver, which are continually hoarded by the people of India. Trading classes. Broadly speaking, the greater part of the internal trade remains in the hands of the natives. Europeans control the shipping business and have a share in the collection of some of the more valuable staples of exports, such as cotton, jute, oil-seeds and wheat. But the work of distribution and the adaptation of the supply to the demand of the consumer naturally fall to those who are best acquainted with native wants. The Vaisya, or trading caste of Manu, has no longer any separate existence; but its place is occupied by several well-marked classes. On the western coast the Parsees, by the boldness and extent of their operations, tread close upon the heels of the most prosperous English houses. In the interior of the Bombay presidency, business is mainly divided between two classes, the Bunniahs of Gujarat and the Marwaris from Rajputana. Each of these profess a peculiar form of religion, the former being Vishnuvites of the Vallabhacharí sect, the latter Jains. In the Deccan their place is taken by Lingayats from the south, who again follow their own form of Hinduism, which is an heretical species of Siva worship. Throughout Mysore, and in the north of Madras, Lingayats are still found, but along the eastern sea-board the predominating classes of traders are those named Chetties and Komatis. In Bengal many of the upper castes of Sudras have devoted themselves to general trade; but there again the Jain Marwaris from Rajputana occupy the front rank. Their headquarters are in Murshidabad district, and their agents are to be found throughout the valley of the Brahmaputra, as far up as the unexplored frontier of China. Local trade.