194 



ON THE ANCIENT 



country, thus getting more able to estimate the value and the 

 market prices of merchandise. The existence of trading 

 companies, which is attested by Yajnavalkya, bears witness to 

 a highly developed state of civilization, the more remarkable, 

 as such societies were constituted according to legal prescrip- 

 tion. The State superintended even the transmission of 

 goods, settling according to a strict scale the amount of freight. 

 The interference of Government went even further, for the 

 prime costs and selling prices of wares were fixed by the 

 authorities, and dues and taxes were levied to the discontent 

 of rate-payers in olden times as well as now-a-days. The 

 Indian kings are said to have paid much attention to the use 

 of proper weights and measures, by ordering an examination 

 and adjustment of them every six months, and punishing 

 severely whoever was convicted of using false measures, or 

 weights. The Hindus became acquainted with the art of 

 coining from the Greeks, and we find that they used previously 

 as money, pieces of gold, silver or copper, which were stamped 

 with a certain mark ; this explains the fact why in the law- 

 books fines were fixed according to weight. Such small pieces 

 of silver, marked with the sign of the sun, the moon or a star, 

 are even now here and there found and prove their antiquity 

 by their rude workmanship, while the name of such gold, silver 

 and copper pieces themselves, as suvarna, nishka, maxha, 

 rahtiha and kdrshdpana, are evidences of their age. In 

 Manu's code the former are prevalent, while in Yajnavalkya 

 real coins (Nanaka) are mentioned, yea even the office of an 

 assayer of the mint is specially recorded. 



If we may believe the Indian law codes, the position of a 

 merchant was regarded to be a very respectable one. They 

 were acknowledged as belonging to the third caste, the 

 Vaisya, who originally shepherds and husbandmen-, had in 

 more refined times devoted themselves to trade. To enhance, 

 moreover, the social position of a merchant, he was regarded 

 as originally the son of a Kshatriya by a Vaisya woman. 



