Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c5.t3.75

c5.t3.75

In the same way we do not find any indication of syndicate or federation or any agreement existing between the out-going traders on board a common ship. The 500 fellow-traders on board the ill-fated ships in the *Valāhassa*⁸ and *Paṇḍara*⁹ *Jātakas*, or the 700 who were lucky enough to have Suppāraka as their pilot,¹⁰ or those others who are so often mentioned as sailing away to far-off lands for trading purposes:¹¹ in all these instances we do not hear anying like a close organisation, "beyond the fact that there was concerted action in chartering one and the same vessel." We cannot say whether these occasional combines were in any way similar to the joint-stock ventures of the chartered trading companies of England in the 16th and 17th centuries. But they were at least the precursors of co-operative enterprises, the *Sambhūyasamutthānam* of the *Dharma Sūtras*¹² and *Kauṭilīya*,¹³ which lay down definite rules for such organisations.