Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 34
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Previous | Next

Page 56
________________ THE INDIA F ASTIQUERY. [MANCA, 1905. In the case of white garments, sális, silk-garments, Ardenie oxide, asafoetida, metals, pigmonte, minerals, sandal of various kinds, raw produce of various kinds, wines and other intoxicating liqaida, ivory, skins, woollen cloths, and carpets, the toll shall be from one tenth to one-fifteenth their value. In the case of coloured garments, cotton threads, erndal,cades, medicines, timber, bamboos, clothing made of fibre, leather, earthcn. pots, grains, oils salts, alkalies, intoxicante of inferior quality and cooked rice, the toll shall be from one-twentieth to one-twenty-fifth their value. Note. From the above rules and regulations, it is elear that tolls on commodities were levied only when they were brought for sale and that toll was paid only when there was actual sale. Caltivators and manufacturers could, therefore, carry their commodities from the places of production to their stores or granaries without paying any toll on them. This would naturally lead to emuggling and people would be clever enough to purchase commodities far outside the forts and bring them as their own and not intended for sale. To ward off this evil, the ancient legislators forebade, on penalty of a heavy fine, the sale of commodities in the places where they were manufactured, Sale of commodities shall not be carried on in the places where they had been grown or manafactured: Purohase of minerals and other commodities from mines shall be punishable with a fine of 603 paņas. Persons pnrohasing flowers and fruits in gardens shall pay a fine of 50 panas. Persona purchasing vegetables in vegetable gardens shall pay a fine of 100 panas. Purchase of grains in the fields where they are grown shall be punishable with a fine of 150 panas. Apart from payments near the Toll-gate of tolls and gate-dues on all kinds of trafio brought for sale, all kinds of vegetable produce that sock admission into the forts, whether for sale or not, shall pay i pana and a quarter as atyaya, fine for unknown guilt. 8. Tolls on commodities shah generally be determined by taking into consideration whether the commodities are old or fresh and where and how the commodities have been manufactured. (D) Weights and Measuresi Notes. Coming next to weights and measures, we can easily imagine from the following rules and regukutions that the revenue which Indian kings of yore realised from Government monopoly of weights and measures 11 could not be less than the revenue derived from tolls. Tradors were forbidden, on penalty of a beavy fine, to have their own weights and measures, whether they might be true or false in the sense of their being or not being equal to those of Government manufacture. This is not all. Traders were required, on penalty of a fine to have their weights and measures stamped, afresh every day on payment of a fixed charge for stamping. 11 [All this shows that there was really hardly any money in circulation; whore this was or is the case, the only way of making commercial profit or of controlling revenue is to control the weights in use, and such control always exists whero commerce is carried om in kind, even by mrages. The merchant bas his "weight in" and "weight out," the difference being his profit. The king has his "royal weight" differing from the merchants' weight, the difference is his revende. It is all quite understood by those who nee it and sounds much worse than it is in practice. With a goneral currency in coin the processes are called "differeuce in buying and sehing price!" and "tax." - ED.]

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548