Some Banjara subgroups engaged in trading specific goods but most traded in anything that might make them money - the range was vast, encompassing plains produce such as oilseed, sugarcane, opium, fruits and flowers, forest products (for example, gums, chironji, mhowa, berries, honey) and items from the hills, including tobacco and grass. Some traded in specific goods, such as the Labana subgroup (salt), the Multani (grain) and the Mukeri (wood and timber). One common Banjara practice in Berar before the British colonial period was the movement of cotton out of the region and then a return journey with groceries, salt, spices and similar consumptibles into the region. In that area, the Deccan Plateau and the Central Provinces, the Banjaras had a monopoly on the movement of salt prior to the arrival of the East India Company. More generally, they also traded in cattle, moving the beasts around the country's bazaars, and they rented out their carts.Although some older sources have suggested that they did not use credit, Habib's analysis of historic sources suggests that they did and that some were reliant on it. Similarly, although the seventeenth-century traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier noted them as being Hindus, Habib finds that in fact a substantial number were Muslim, especially in northern India.