The role of the state in the sphere of industry and trade was as important as in the social and economic life. The foundation of market- towns in rural areas; the making and maintenance of roads and ensuring of safety on them were accepted as among the primary duties of government.
Kautilya enjoins the king to prevent obstruction on trade routes by his favourites (vallabhas), officers, and frontier- guards (antapalas) as well as from thieves and animal herds. The intimate association of the industrial and commercial classes with the court becomes clear from the rules relating to the planned settlement of the fortified capital. This description also conveys an idea of the relative social status of the different groups among them.
Dealers in scents, garlands, grains and liquids, and expert artisans had their habitations to the east of the royal palace along with members of the Kshatriya caste. Dealers in cooked food, liquor, and flesh lived on the southern side along with Vaisyas, prostitutes, and musicians. The western side was allotted to the Sudras, the makers of woollen and cotton goods and armourers. Workers in base metals and precious stones lived on the north along with Brahmins.
The value of natural resources and the need for efficient exploitation of them were well understood. Among the qualities of a good country are mentioned the possession of fertile agricultural tracts, mines and forests of different types, easy land waterways. Towards his neighbours the advised to pursue a policy which would be to the exploitation of his own obstruct that of his neighbors’.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
There is of much academic discussion among writ polity on the relative advantages of tracts mines and in food-grains, of mines yielding and small output and those with an i- but large output and of different types of routes; such discussions must have produce least to some extent on the basis of known Another aspect of state policy was the m less strict control of artisans and traders, to is devoted a good part of the section on takasodhana. Artisans and merchants arc 1 upon with suspicion, as likely to act against public interest, and once Kautilya roundly terries them as thieves in fact though not inn There was a general attempt at regulating wages and profits; penalties were laid against mixing up old goods with new, and the of old wares required the permission of them superintendent. Kautilya holds oppression traders to be worse than even that caused antapalas.
On the other hand, both artisa merchants enjoyed the special protection of state, and offences against their person or were severely dealt with. According to if a person caused the loss of a hand or an e, a craftsman, he was put to death. The policy of the state was thus aimed at a system control of the evils of a free competitive econ’ partly by direct participation in industry trade, and partly by bureaucratic paternalism.