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282
LAWS OF MANU.
VIII, 157
157. Whatever rate men fix, who are expert in sea-voyages and able to calculate (the profit) according to the place, the time, and the objects (carried), that (has legal force) in such cases with respect to the payment (to be made).
158. The man who becomes a surety in this (world) for the appearance of a (debtor), and produces him not, shall pay the debt out of his own property.
159. But money due by a surety, or idly promised, or lost at play, or due for spirituous liquor, or what remains unpaid of a fine and a tax or duty, the son (of the party owing it) shall not be obliged to pay.
160. This just mentioned rule shall apply to the case of a surety for appearance (only); if a surety for payment should die, the (judge) may compel even his heirs to discharge the debt.
161. On what account then is it that after the death of a surety other than for payment, whose
explain kakravriddhi, 'a contract to carry goods by a wheeled carriage,' by 'compound interest;' and Medh. on verse 157 mentions this opinion too.
157. The expression 'in sea-voyages' includes voyages by land (Medh., Gov., Kull., Râgh.), or all voyages (Nâr.). The commentators, who explain the preceding verse as referring to compound interest, explain this to mean that merchants trading by sea must pay any rate of interest for money borrowed which experts may fix (see Yâgñ. II, 38). The others, of course, understand by the rate' (vriddhi) the carrier's or shipowner's wages.
158-160. Gaut. XII, 42; Vi. VI, 41; Yâgñ. II, 47, 53-54.
159. Idly promised,' i.e. to clowns and so forth' (Kull.), or 'to bards and the like' (Nar.), or 'not for a religious purpose, but to singers and the like' (Nand.), or 'in jest, to bards and the like' (Rågh.), or'a pour-boire and the like' (Gov.).
161. Whose affairs are fully known,' i.e. the cause for which
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