The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s4.t1.7

c9.s4.t1.7

In regard to the gild merchant more inscriptions may be drawn upon. In Madras of the twelfth century under Vikrama Chola (1118), the hero of an historical Tamil poem, there was a traders’ gild⁵ with a membership of 500. Its activities and interests were coextensive with the South Indian Empire. In Gupta India during the fourth and fifth centuries bankers (*śreṣṭhins*), traders (*sârtthavâhas*) and merchants (*kulikas*) used to close their business correspondence with clay seals. The *nigama* or corporation of these commercial interests, with headquarters probably at Pâtali-putra, was “something like a modern chamber of commerce”.⁶ Such bodies working, as they did, in concert (*sambhûya*) were notorious in the fourth century B. C. owing to their attempts to “corner” the market. The problem of “profiteering” had to be tackled by the Maurya Empire especially because the union of merchants tried to raise prices so high as to yield a cent per cent profit.⁷