Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c8.190

c8.190

The control and interference of the king is a very remarkable feature in every part of the law of trade. The king shall fix the market price¹ every five or fourteen days or when he thinks fit in view of the rapidity of the fluctuation of price, so that the profit of the traders in indigenous wares may be 5 per cent. and of those in foreign wares 10 per cent.; he should take for himself ¹/₂₀ of the value of the merchandise and under certain circumstances even ¹/₁₀ of the same after making due consideration of the market price and the costs of the journey, the maintenance of the servants and the escorts of the transports; he shall collect duties and ferriage at the customs houses (sulka-sthāna) and the ferries (tara) and impose heavy fines on merchants who try to evade the customs houses; he should examine the measures and weights and have them verified twice a year—falsification of measures, weights and coins is severely punished; he should try to stop the formation of cliques among the merchants which aim at bringing about artificial rises and falls in the prices (M. 8, 398—405; Y. 2, 249—253, 261—263; Vi. 3, 29—31; 5, 130 f. etc.).