The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c22.49

v1.c22.49

The king rules not because of might alone but by virtue of his morality. A wicked king may be deposed; a king who injures his people instead of protecting them should be killed ‘like a mad dog.’ Taxes there must be, because the people must be defended, and this costs; but they must be light, and vary according to need. The tax in kind is common. The merchant pays in kind and the ranchman pays in kind, but the town-people are fined in copper money for offences, though bodily punishment takes the place of fines in all cases where there is intent to deceive. Thus the shipping-duties paid by ‘merchants coming from afar’ are probably in kind (*Mbh.*, II, 5, 114). Frequent allusions to merchants ‘using false weights’ (cf. I, 64, 21 f.) show that a careful supervision of the market-place was necessary. The merchant-gilds were of such authority that the king was not allowed to establish any laws repugnant to the rules of these trade-unions. The heads of gilds are mentioned next after the priests as objects of a king’s anxious concern¹.