A meeting of the Madras Economic Association was held at the Senate room last evening when Mr. S. Jagadesa Aiyar, High Court Vakil, read a paper on the economies of the joint family system with Mr. S. Srinivasan Aiyangar in the chair. The Lecturer at the outset described the three types of joint family — the Mitakshara, the Dayabaga and the Malabar system and said that joint ownership of property, right by birth, indefiniteness of share, restricted alienability, non-accountability and enjoyment according to needs and wants of individual members were the chief characteristics of the joint family system. The importance of such family groups in the field of economics was very great but sufficient attention had not been paid hitherto to the study of the effects of collective ownership of property upon the productive capacity of a nation or the distribution of national wealth. The joint family economy could not be considered to be in an elementary or primitive stage in the development of economic progress. The revival of the corporate spirit which was seen in the modern partnerships, joint stock companies and other voluntary associations shewed the living features of the joint family system.
