State and Government in Ancient India c22.s4.t7.1

c22.s4.t7.1

A survey of the nature and scope of the activities of the Mauryan state will show that it was largely a welfare state. It regarded itself as the trustee of the population as a whole and tried to harmonise the conflicting interests of its different classes. It tried to keep the scales even between the employer and employee by laying down that the former should pay the agreed wages even when no work was done, if it had to be stopped for no fault of the employee. On the other hand the labourer was punished if he neglected the work or committed theft or destroyed the raw material (III. 14). It protected the consumer by preventing merchant prices from cornering commodities and raising their prices. It regulated the prices of articles in the interest of the general consumer (II. 16), but while doing so, gave full consideration to the cost of the raw material and manufacture, and the toll and transport expenditure. Fraud on the customers was sought to be minimised by making the use of standardised and stamped weights and measures compulsory; traders using unauthorised measures were punished (II. 19). Merchants selling adulterated goods were also severely dealt with (VI. 2). The state, however, tried its best to help the traders and industrialists also by laying out roads, by ensuring the safety of traffic, and by constructing emporiums. Merchants were compensated for articles lost through any thefts in transit (VI. 13. The state no doubt took land tax, but it also financed irrigation works to help agriculture. It helped community projects by granting tax-exemption for four or five years to those villagers who constructed or repaired village dams, canals and roads. Material like timber and stone was also supplied free to the villagers for their works of public utility.