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ON THE ANCIENT 



V. 



ON THE ANCIENT COMMERCE OF 

 INDIA. 1 



The commerce of every country, especially the commerce of 

 a country so ancient, so cultivated and so renowned as India 

 is, possesses not only an intrinsic political economic interest, 

 but is also of considerable geographical and ethnological 

 importance. By examining the commercial records of a 

 nation we begin to become more intimately acquainted with 

 the real inner life of the nation, than by merely studying its 

 external political history with its wars and treaties. The 

 commencement of civilization indeed is the starting point of 

 trade. New and until then unknown wants are first felt and 

 require to be gratified. This desire can only be realized by 

 exchange of articles belonging either to persons of the same- 

 community or to different tribes or nations. The demand 

 for an article creates its supply ; the more intense becomes 

 this demand, the more refined the taste ; the greater the- 

 quantity the better the quality of the object in question. 

 To promote intercourse between nations and to provide for 

 the transmission of goods, roads on land and on sea need to 

 be discovered or constructed, and for the conveyance of men 

 and their chattels vehicles and ships must be built. Thus in 

 supplying the requisite necessaries of life and improving the 

 desired commodities, the human mind becomes inventive. 

 Art and science follow the track of trade. 



(1) This lecture was delivered in the Government Central Museum at 

 Madras in 1876. 



