________________
SOOLAL LIFE AND ECONOMIO CONDITIONS were brought to the gates, apparently from village, and the sale transactions were carried ony there. There were āpanas or shops where commodities were displayed for sale, while there were antarāpanas where things were stored before sale. Merchants could enter into partnership or temporary partnership and there could arise disputes as to the shares of profit. The commodities sold in these āpanas were textile fabrics, groceries and oil, green groceries , grain , perfumes and flowers), articles of gold and jewellery, carriages, arrows, etc. The hawkers carried their wares & for sale in portable trays. For the sale of strong drinks there were taverns known as pānāgāras.' Prices were not fixed and there was competition by which the dealers wanted to prevail upon the purchasers. The vice of adulteration was also not unknown. On the part of the buyers there was the haggling of price.10 Things for the royal households were purchased by an 'officer known as Aggahakāraka who fixed the prices of the required commodities. The prices so fixed could not, however, be changed by appeal. There was also a check on the officer
1 Jätaka, iv, p. 445. 8 Ibid., i, pp. 66, 380. 3 Ibid., i, p. 4ll. 7 Tbid., i, p. 290.; iv, p. 82.
Id., i, p. 251f.
% Ibid., ti, p. 267, - Ibid., i, p. 404.
Ibid., ii, p. 287. & Toid., ii, p. 21. 10 Thidi 111f.
