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ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
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Bharukaccha for trade, and some of them are even mentioned to have captured the beautiful young Jaina nuns. An instance may be cited of the merchants who after initiating themselves as Jaina laymen and thus gaining the faith of the Church authorities, called the nuns to worship the deity or Caitya established inside the ship, and the moment they entered, the ship was sailed. The importance of Bharukaccha as a seaport has been recorded by all the foreign merchants and travellers. It is well-known that the maritime activities of the port of Broach which had commenced as early as the second millennium B.C. continued unabated until the seventh century A D.
In spite of a regular trade by land and water, a slow decline in the standards of trade can be judged from the text. Apart from other difficulties the fear of seige (rohaga) and political upheaval ( rajjukhobha ) must have considerably effected the land-trade, while the inviolable activities of the sea-pirates proved to be a cause of slow decline in the standards of shipping. Coinage
A flourishing trade afforded great possibilities for a rich coinage. Coins were the regular media of exchange in buying and selling commodities. No examples of barter-system can be observed in the text. The servants, however, could sometime be paid in cash as well as in kind. 4 Coins made of gold, silver and copper5 have been mentioned in the text. The existence of these different coins may be easily proved by the combined testimony of Yuan Chwange and Sulaimanthe Arab traveller who visited Gujarat in 851 A.D.7 1. Ibid. 2. MacCriodle, Ancient India as Described in classical Literature, pp.
98-100. Al-Idrisi also mentionsBaruch (Broach ) as a port of call for ships coming to China and Sind.-Elliot and Dowson, History of
India, Vol. I, p. 87. 3. Majmudar, M. R., op. cit., p. 66. 4. NO. 3, p. 433. 5. NG, 3, p. 111; Brh. VỊ. 2, P. 573. 6. Watters, op. cit., 1, p. 178; Bcal, op. cit., 1, pp. 89-90. 7. Räs Mālā, p. 45.
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