The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c11.t30.15

c11.t30.15

We are not concerned here with "index numbers" or the statistics of wages and prices nor with the manner in which the tariff, if it was really protective to some extent, may have affected the course of investments, commerce and industries. The stray figures for the third and fourth centuries B..C. and the eleventh and twelfth centuries may be taken for what they are worth. Only, it is necessary to bear in mind that in British India today the average *per capita* income is 20 Rupees or 6⅔ dollars *per annum*. On the whole, then, it may reasonably be concluded that the financial burden⁴ of *pax sârva-bhaumica*, howsoever heavy it might be whether absolutely or relatively, was easily borne by a contented peasantry and working class, a prosperous industrial and commercial aristocracy, and last but not least, a well-paid civil service and army, especially in view of the fact that under Chandragupta and Asoka the people of India had the conscious satisfaction of being citizens of the first and greatest power of the world.