Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c9.95

c9.95

**Nationalisation of Industries.** It will also be observed that the Kauṭilīya polity was based on a considerable amount of socialism and nationalisation of industries. A large part of the administrative machinery is employed in the management and exploitation of State property of various kinds administered as business concerns. There were large royal estates and forests. The State had a monopoly of Mines. It carried on both Export and Import Trade and appropriated the profits of middlemen. It established factories for working up of raw materials of different kinds into finished products. Besides, as revenue was payable in kind, large establishments had to be maintained all over the country for dealing with vast quantities of agricultural products tendered in payment of taxes, as well as the products derived from the crown estates. Again, a Central Store at headquarters was necessary for several purposes, as a reserve against famine, as provision for the royal household, as a source of raw material for the royal manufactories, and, lastly, as the means of paying salaries to officials in kind.