CHAPTER IV.

STANDARD AND REGULATION.

ROBERT KNOX, whose book, published in 1682, is still the best written and most interesting account of Ceylon, gives an amusing account of the craftsmen, incidentally mentioning an interesting form of regulation whereby to each smith a monopoly of the work in a special district was reserved.

"These Smiths," he says, take much upon them, especially those who are the King's Smiths; that is, such who live in the King's Towns, and do his work. They have this Privilege, that each has a parcel of Towns belonging to them, whom none but they are to work for. The ordinary work they do for them is mending their Tools, for which every man pays to his Smith a certain Rate of Corn in Harvest time according to ancient Custom. But if any has work extraordinary, as making new tools or the like, beside the aforesaid Rate of Corn, he must pay him for it. In order to this, they come in an humble manner to the Smith with a Present, being Rice, Hens, and other sorts of provision, or a bottle of Rack, desiring him to appoint his time

A 'SMITH'S JURISDICTION.'

when they shall come to have their work done. Which when he hath appointed them, they come at the set time and bring both Coals and Irons with them. The Smith sits very gravely upon his stool, his Anvil before him, with his left hand towards the forge, and a little Hammer in his Right. They themselves who come with their work must blow the Bellows, and when the Iron is to be beaten with the great Maul, he holds it, still sitting upon his Stool, and they must hammer it themselves, he only with his little Hammer knocking it sometimes into fashion. And if it be anything to be filed, he makes them go themselves and grind it upon a Stone, that his labour of filing may be the less; and when they have done it as well as they can, he goes over it again with his file and finisheth it. That which makes these Smiths thus stately is because the Towns People are compelled to go to their own Smith, and none else. And if they should, that Smith is liable to pay Damages that should work for any in another Smith's jurisdiction."*

Of the King's Towns, or Royal Manors in Ceylon, Knox says also: "In each of these Towns there is a Smith to make and mend the Tools of them to whom the King hath granted them, and a Potter to fit them with earthenware, and a Washer to wash their Cloaths, and other men to supply what they Cf. Appendix VII.

STANDARD.

have need of. And each one of these hath a piece of land for this their service, whether it be to the King or the lord; but what they do for the other People they are paid for. Thus all that have any Place or Employment under the King, are paid without any charge to the King."

A special feature of the guild activity has been alluded to already, in the statement that no unqualified person could remain in or enter it. It was, indeed, one of the most important functions of the guild in India, as in Europe, to maintain the Standard of quality, both of material and design. A forlorn trace of this survives in Europe in the hallmarking of gold and silver; and even that is not concerned with quality of design. In other cases the king or the State became responsible for the regulation of the craft sometimes in connection with the necessity for effective means of collecting the tolls and dues. The principle of Regulation is recognized in that fascinating and, for the study of Indian society, all-important law - book, the "Ordinances of Manu":

He who avoids a custom-house, he who buys or sells at an improper time, or he who makes a false. statement in enumerating his goods, shall be fined eight times the amount of duty which he tried to evade. Let the king fix the rates for the purchase and sale of all marketable goods, having duly con

MAINTENANCE

sidered whence they come, whither they go, how long they have been kept, the probable profit and the probable outlay. Once in five nights, or at the close of each fortnight, let the king publicly settle the prices of the merchants."

Here we see recognized the important doctrine of the “fair price," so striking a feature of the commercial ideas of Medieval Europe. The commercial morality of the individual is also safeguarded :

"A weaver who has received ten palas of thread, shall return cloth weighing one pala more; he who acts differently shall be compelled to pay a fine of twelve panas. . All weights and measures must be duly marked, and once in six months let the king re-examine them."

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Closely bound up with these arrangements is the system of taxation, which amounts to what we should now call an income tax, or more exactly, a royalty, the due contribution from the trader to the State which protects him and the king his patron, and here also we see provision for the estimation of the fair price:

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Let the king take one-twentieth of that amount which men well acquainted with the settlement of tolls and duties, and skilful in estimating the value of all kinds of merchandise, may fix as the value for each saleable commodity."

OF STANDARD.

So also Yajnavalkya, 1360:

"A king, having duly corrected the castes, families, guilds of artisans (sreni), schools and communities of people that have swerved from the duty of their caste (sva-dharmat), should place them in the right path."

Let us examine a few instances of these commercial principles at work in India.

In the time of Chandragupta (3rd cent. B.C.) there were six Municipal Boards in Pātaliputra, of which the first was entrusted with the superintendence of everything relating to the industrial arts: fixing the rate of wages, and enforcing the use of pure and sound materials, as well as the performance of a fair day's work for fair wages. These boards consisted of five members each, and may be regarded as a development on official lines, of the ordinary pancayat or committee of five members by which every caste and trade in India has been accustomed to regulate its internal affairs from time immemorial.* The State regulation of craft appears to have been connected with the collection of tolls and revenues, and the two things hung together.

A reference to guilds and regulations is found in the Ain-i-Akbari, or Institutes of Akbar (sixteenth century), in the chapter dealing with the duties of the Kotwal, or City Officer.

* Vincent Smith, "Early History of India," Ed. II., p. 125.