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(190) INDIA AS DESCRIBED, IN EARLY TIXTS
from the side of the king. All native and foreign goods imported into the city were assessed and a duty was levied upon them.
Coins appear to have been the chief medium of exchange, but the more primitive means of barter was also not unknown. Barter was not, however, the usual practice. In the Jātakas almost all kinds of prices, foes, pensions, 'fines, loans, and incomes have usually been stated in terms of coins of different denominations. Among coins there is mention of kūkanika, māsaka, addhamāsaka, pāda, addhapāda, kahāpaņa and addhakahāpana. Silver coins do not appear to have been in use and mention of gold coins like rikkha 2 or suvanna is late and 'doubtful. There is mention also of cowry shells (sippikāni), but they were probably not used as currency, and the coins mentioned above were probably all made of copper.
Besides actual currency there were several other legal instruments. Mention is made of letters of credit by means of which big merchants
1 Buddhistic Studies, od. by B. C. Law, Ohap. XV; T. W. Rhys Davids, Ancient Ooins and Measures of Ceylon; D. R. Bhandarkar, Carmichael Lectures, 1921, pp. 53, 62, eto.
, Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 269. It is also called Mikloha ;D.R. Bhandarkar, Carmchacl Lectures, 1921, pp. 53, 62, 63, 64, etc.; Pran Nath, A Study in the Economio Condition of Ancient India,
p. 85f.
& For details, see Mrs. Rhys Ravids, Economic Conditions according to Early Buddhist Literaturo, Cambridge History of India, I, Chap. VIIE.
