The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.317

v1.c19.s9.317

The act of exchange between producer and consumer, or between either and a middleman, was both before and during the age when the Jātaka-book was compiled, a ‘free’ bargain, a transaction unregulated, with one notable exception, by any system of statute-fixed prices. Supply was hampered by slow transport, by individualistic production, and by primitive machinery. But it was left free for the producer and dealer to prevail by competition³, and also by adulteration⁴, and to bring about an equation with a demand which was largely compact of customary usage and relatively unaffected by the swifter fluctuations termed fashion.