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on trade in the Mediterranean Ægean States loaded with Egyptian and Assyrian goods16 in the first half of the second millenuin B. C. Bhārata had a very flourishing foreign trade with Sumer and Egypt in the early part of the third Millenium B. C. The existence of big communal granaries leave no doubt that this foreign trade was carried on by the community as in Egypt and Sumer.
The economic life of the society of the region, it appears, was organised on the basis of the synthetic harmony of the individual and the society. The individual was recognised as free and independent. His self-sufficiency was ensured. Then he had full opportunities to serve the community. The surplus economic produce belonged, not for profit to any particular individual, high or low, but to the whole of the community. The individual received gift from community for his service to the community as in the shape of land in in Sumer, but he was not allowed to grow at the expense of other individual members of the society. The family of the individual was the basic unit and personal property was allowed, but it was never allowed to transgress the bounds of equality and social hamony. The individual and his family was the integrated unit of the society.
References 1. Gcorge Rawlinson ; History of Ancient Egypt, 1881, Vol. I,
pages 151-155. 2. Hentry Frankfort; The Birth of Civilization in the near East;
1954, page 90. 3. H. Frankfort; op. cit., p. 84, 87. 4. G. Rawlinson ; op. cit., Vol. II, page 42. 5. V. Gordon Childe ; New light on the Most Ancient East; 1958,
page 118. 6. H. Frankfort, op. cit., pages 60-61. 7. D. H. Gordon ; The Pre-historic Background of Indian Culture,
1958, pages 35, 55.
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