The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.235

v1.c19.s9.235

Partnerships in commerce, either permanent, or on specified occasions only, are frequently mentioned: the former, in the *Kūṭavāṇija*⁷ and *Mahāvāṇija*⁸ Jātakas, the latter in the *Pāyāsi Suttanta*⁹ and the *Serivāṇija Jātaka*¹⁰. In the *Jarudapāna Jātaka*¹¹ there is, if not explicit statement, room for assuming concerted commercial action on a more extensive scale, both in the birth-story and also in its introductory episode. The caravan in question, consisting of an indefinite number of traders (in the birth-story, under a *jeṭṭhaka*), accumulate and export goods at the same time, and apparently share the treasure trove, or the profits therefrom. In the episode the firm also wait upon the Buddha with gifts before and after their journey. These were traders of Sāvatthī, of the class who are elsewhere described as acting so unanimously under Anāthapiṇḍika, himself a great travelling merchant. The *Guttila Jātaka*¹², again, shows concerted action, in work and play, on the part of Benares traders. It is conceivable, however, that the travelling in company may have been undertaken as much for mutual convenience in the chartering of a common ship, or the employment of a single band of forest-guards, as for the prevention of mutual under-selling or the cornering of any wares¹. Merchants are represented, at least as often, as travelling with their own caravan alone. Thus in the first Jātaka² two traders, about to convey commodities to some distant city, agree which shall start first. The one thinks that, if he arrive first, he will get a better, because non-competitive price; the other, also holding that competition is killing work (lit. ‘price-fixing is like robbing men of life’), prefers to sell at the price fixed, under circumstances favourable to the dealer, by his predecessor, and yields him a start.