The History of Bengal (Vol. I: Hindu Period; Vol. II: Muslim Period 1200–1757) v1.c19.s8.t1.1

v1.c19.s8.t1.1

Oddly enough, we know much less about the inland commerce of ancient Bengal than about her foreign trade. The reason for this is that inscriptions, which form the most important source of our information concerning the early economic life of the people, do not, and cannot by their nature be expected to, deal with internal traffic. Nor do foreign travellers and historians help us in the matter, for their chief interest lay in the foreign trade of the province.² Yet the early development of a considerable foreign trade, to which reference will be made later, presupposes the existence of a certain amount of internal commerce. Occasional reference in later inscriptions also confirm this view. The mention of *haṭṭa-pati* (supra p. 282), *śaulkika* (p. 278) and *tarika* (p. 278) (officers in charge of markets, customs, tolls and ferries) in the land-grants indirectly testifies to the brisk nature of internal trade, and shows that the state derived from it a considerable revenue. The principal centres of inland trade were obviously the towns. The Koṭālipāḍā Plates (supra p. 51) bear witness to the fact that Navyāvakāśikā was a rendezvous of merchants and businessmen.³ The Dāmodarpur Plates (*supra* p. 49) tell the same tale in regard to Koṭivarsha.