Hindu Administrative Institutions c9.s1.46

c9.s1.46

The regulation of tolls bears testimony to the prevalence of an excellent code of commercial morality. Wholesale markets are known as the ‘ध्वज.’ The state had the wholesale prices fixed and any merchant getting an enhanced sum would be deprived of that amount which would go to replenish the treasury. There were toll-houses situated at the entrances to the city or fortress. Toll-keepers were to examine the goods, their destination and the seal-marks, and impose dues according to their value. Consideration was also shown for useless articles. Again there were no tolls for commodities intended for marriages, ceremonies, gifts or sacrifices. Forbidden articles if imported would be forfeited and the dealers punished.³ Tolls varied according as the articles were necessaries or luxuries. Fruits, flowers, meat, etc., came under the category of luxuries. Commonly the toll levied was one-sixth, while necessaries like clothes and metals were assessed at one-twentieth or one-twenty-fifth. Besides the tolls there was another due *dvāradeya*, literally the gate-dues. (Another regulation of the department of commerce was the prohibition of retail sale at manufacturing places.¹) This would, in the course of nature, affect prejudicially the proper distribution of trade as well as the revenues to the state. This reminds us of the practice in vogue to-day of wholesale manufacturers not dealing directly with individual traders but with established distributing firms and houses.