History of Money, Banking, and Trade
A historical look at the development and evolution of money, banking, and trade. From the ancient civilizations to the present.
History of Money, Banking, and Trade
Episode 23. Ancient India's Economic Evolution
Can the principles of an ancient Indian treatise still guide modern governance and economics? Explore the remarkable rise of the Mauryan Empire, where Chandragupta Maurya, under the mentorship of Chanakya, transformed post-Alexander India into a powerhouse by overthrowing the Nanda Empire in 321 BCE. Utilizing the comprehensive Arthashastra, they crafted strategies for governance, economics, and military might that cemented their hold over one of ancient India's largest empires.
Discover the economic intricacies of ancient India, designed to preserve the wealth of the elite and stave off upward mobility for the masses. We'll unravel the workings of the Department of Navigation, responsible for protecting harbors and enforcing stringent trade policies, and delve into Chandragupta's strategic alliances, including his pivotal treaty with Seleucus I. The episode sheds light on the Mauryan caste system, spotlighting the roles and responsibilities of each caste, and investigates the advanced infrastructure projects, funded by taxes, that included a national healthcare system.
Follow Ashoka the Great's transformative journey from a feared conqueror to a devout Buddhist, whose rule was marked by religious tolerance and profound contributions to Buddhism. This episode also spans the economic and cultural evolution from the Indus Valley civilization to the Indo-Greek era, emphasizing the significant trade relationships with ancient Rome. From the diverse currencies used to the monsoon winds' discovery, which revolutionized maritime trade, this is an episode rich with historical insights on the economic and social fabric of ancient India. Tune in to grasp the legacy of the Mauryan Empire and its enduring influence on governance, trade, and culture.
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Welcome podcast listener. I am Mike D and this is the History of Money, banking and Trade podcast. My goal is to expand your knowledge of the history and evolution of trade, along with money, banking and credit, from ancient civilizations all the way to the present. I truly hope you find these episodes to be informative and entertaining. Now, I'm not a historian, but I am a fan of history.
Speaker 1:Where we last left off, alexander had tried to expand eastward into India, but he was stopped more or less by the sheer size of the Nanda military. Alexander's army begged him to turn around, as they were basically done fighting by this point army. Begged him to turn around, as they were basically done fighting by this point. Soon thereafter, alexander headed back to Babylon where he died at the age of 32. A lot of speculation has surrounded his death whether it was from poisoning or some sort of infectious disease, or maybe he just drank himself to death. Either way, his empire exploded, but, more importantly for the Indian empires, it was one less thing that they had to worry about.
Speaker 1:Shortly after Alexander's death, in 322 BCE, the Nanda Empire came under attack by the Mauryan Empire. Let's not forget, the Nanda Empire was so massive that even Alexander's army didn't even try to defeat it. So what does that mean for the Marians? Well, according to Indian scriptures, the ruler of the wealthy Nanda empire had offended Chanakya, a prominent Brahmin, in public. The Buddhist version of the story says that Chanakya was born with canine teeth, which was considered to be a sign of a royal origin. His mother, on the other hand, feared that he would abandon her once he became a king, so Chanakya broke his teeth to calm his mother. So one day, the Nana king organized a ceremony for the Brahmins, which Shanakaya was attending. Once the king saw Shanakaya, he was so disgusted and offended by his appearance, with his crooked legs and unsightly face and broken teeth, that he ordered someone remove him from the ceremony. Offended by the king's order, shanakya promised to put an end to his reign and bring down his empire, which he did through his protege, chandigupja Maurya, who was advised and taught by Chanakya, who utilized the power vacuum that was formed in parts of India that was previously conquered by Alexander. In particular, it was the greater Punjab area and other parts in South Asia.
Speaker 1:Much of the stories about how the Nanda Empire was conquered are legendary stories because there just isn't much in the way of historical records or evidence. In fact, chandragupta Mayra's origin is not known. The majority of the written sources of the conquest of the Nanda Empire were written at a minimum of 200 years after the fact, when Chandragupta had formed one of the biggest empires in ancient India. According to Putark, a young Chandragupta may have met Alexander when he was still a teenager. Now that may have happened, but we will truly never know. Chandragupta Maya chipped away the fringes of the Nadi Empire, first allowing his power and influence to rise. Then Chandragupta hired a Hindu mercenary group to attack the capital of Pataliputra and in the process, he was able to take control of the entire empire and created a new empire in the process in his name in 321 BCE.
Speaker 1:Most information that we get from this time period comes from Arthusastra, which was an ancient Indian Sanskrit treaty which covered items such as political science and their economic policy and, of course, military strategy. In reality, this was a set of numerous books, of which Chanakira was part of the team that was credited as an author of the text. As an author of the text, chanakup Damaira used the Arthasratra to manage and run his empire. Now it sounds like to me that he learned from his mentor that he should put a major emphasis on gathering intelligence, as one of the biggest things he did was he recruited a network of spies that would have penetrated his empire and beyond. The reason I say he got this from Janakira is because Janakira and other authors of this treaty had laid out this entirely in his book, the Anastrathra, which acted more like a manual on how to run an empire and keep the power, acted more like a manual on how to run an empire and keep the power and, in all honesty, it really starts with the warrior caste, who typically held their lands in common and had them worked by serfs or even slaves.
Speaker 1:They developed into a well-trained, professional army, and it was open to young men of a wide variety of backgrounds. In addition, their equipment was supplied by central authorities and they were provided with generous salaries, whatever their origins. Coins and markets sprung up all over to feed the war machine. As such, the book stated that the treasury is based on mining and the army is based upon the treasury. He who has the army and the treasury may conquer. Additionally, the book describes setting up a bureaucracy that handles military contracts to stop profiteers from charging excess fees to supply the military. However, this mentality bled over into the overall economy, whereas the government would control their granaries, their workshops, warehouses and even the jails, all staffed by government workers. All the while, the profits from these enterprises would be used to pay soldiers and other officials. The silver and the remainder would be put back into royal treasuries. Silver and the remainder would be put back into royal treasuries.
Speaker 1:In reality, china Cairo's books is often translated as the science of wealth, or some have called it the science of the political economy. This manual touches upon many subjects, especially the market and trading, economy and law, and even the art of war. In reality, you could probably make the case that you could make an individual podcast dedicated to these set of books alone, and basically what I did is, instead of having one drawn out podcast just on these books, I figured it'd be best just to highlight some of the basic ideas within it. Some of the basic ideas within it. In topic six, it lays out how you should always test in secret to ensure the integrity and the lack of integrity of all ministers and high officials in the kingdom.
Speaker 1:Now, as a person from the United States, I can assure you that this doesn't happen here. It goes even further to note that those who do not act with integrity shouldn't be fired. They should be arrested. Could you imagine that? In the United States, anyway, those who are unjust should not work in civil or criminal courts. Those who lack integrity in financial matters or fall for the lure of money must not be a tax collector or work in the treasury. Not be a tax collector or work in the treasury. Economic crimes, such as conspiracy by a group of traders or artisans is to be punished with a much larger impunitive fines than those individually, as conspiracy causes systematic damage to the well-being of the people. Once again, not applicable to the United States. Could you imagine if a president who lacks integrity been found guilty of financial fraud or is accused of sexual assault? Well, me neither. But because that would never happen here, of course, the highest level of ministers must have been tested and have successfully demonstrated integrity in all situations and all types of allurements.
Speaker 1:Topics 30-47 discusses the role of the government in setting up standards for balances and weights and measures, which is vital for the efficiency of trade. Unfortunately, we just don't have an accurate chart of those weights and measures, so we really don't know for sure the standardized units that they used. The problem is we see different names associated with different weights. So it's hard for us to really reconcile that information at this particular point. Also, the weights and measures would have been different for the different items that it was measuring. So, for example, the weights of gold and silver would have had a different value, but people probably would have understood that the standardized weights of measure for silver and gold. So, though we may not really know the specifics of the standards of the weights and measures, the people back then probably really did.
Speaker 1:They also had standardized manuals that were used for setting up shipping, whereas the superintendent of shipping would have been appointed to oversee the operations of seafaring vessels and uphold the customs of the port records. These records would have been maintained by the superintendent of ports and would have been checked upon. So, in other words, what I'm getting at is if you would have been maintained by the superintendent of ports and would have been checked upon. So, in other words, what I'm getting at is if you would have shipped any goods via the water. Agriculture, the domestication of animals and plants, horses, elephants, along with military preparedness and intelligence gathering were all part of this manual, all part of this manual. They even had undercover agents that were looking out to see if people were using counterfeit coins to pass along as legitimate money. Now, if a famine or a natural disaster struck, the king should be able to forgive those from paying their taxes.
Speaker 1:Chanakaya realized that the prosperity of commerce led to financial prosperity, but he also believed that the happiness of a subject lies in the king's happiness. Therefore, the government played a key role in the protection and promotion of economic and social well-being of its citizens. So the government wanted to promote the public interest and also wanted to promote trade and commerce. In order to accomplish this, the state required a sound treasury, and the state became a market player, thus making ancient India's economy a mixed economy. Now, what really helped India maintain its treasury was the fact that it had large natural reserves of metals such as gold and silver and copper, in addition to other metals that were used in finished goods.
Speaker 1:But you got to understand it's not just having the metals that's important. You also needed to know how to extract and purify them. You also needed to know how to extract and purify them. Therefore, the state had mandated certain policies which essentially gave them a monopoly over the mining of these metals. Ultimately, a superintendent would be put in charge of the proper supply and storage would allow for them to control the prices. Underneath the superintendent would be various officers who would have to know the process of metallurgy and therefore would be in charge of inspecting and testing the various metals. Testing the various metals. In addition, certain officers would have been put in charge of the exploration of these valuable resources, whether it was in the mountaintops or in the ocean.
Speaker 1:Now, generally speaking, the state would have been responsible for mining these sites only if it didn't require a large investment for extraction. Now, on the other hand, if it was a more complex mine, that would require a large investment up front and the state would often lease the mining rights to individual companies. And these leases would have been set up whereas the company paid a fixed rate or the company would have split the difference in the profits with the government. The company would have split the difference in the profits with the government. Now, india was just like other ancient societies, whereas salt would have been very valuable and an important commodity for many reasons, including the preservation of foods. Therefore, a separate salt commissioner would have been set up to regulate the mining of salt, including setting up certain leases to companies and establishing prices. In addition, the commissioner would have been responsible for collecting taxes on the salt. In order to privately sell salt, you first had to pay all your fees and dues to the government, and then you would have to pay a 5% surcharge on the sale of the salt, in addition to certain inspection and other manufacturing fees. Now, also in India, you could import salt, but you would have incurred a pretty hefty tariff, which was obviously designed to raise revenues for the government, but, more importantly, it was probably meant as a means to protect the local salt manufacturers.
Speaker 1:There was also a commissioner of the forest who was responsible for overseeing the extraction of timber in the particular region, and yet this was another line item of revenue for the state. It's also worth noting that this commissioner's responsibilities were a little bit different and more broad than you might think, because this didn't include just the trees. It also included the bamboo, flowers and leaves, and even things like poison and the bones of the animals that were found in the forest. So essentially, anything that was in the force would have been the responsibility of the force commissioner. There was even a liquor commissioner who was responsible for overseeing all the production and consumption of liquor in the region. Now, what is interesting is. It almost feels like they had an open container kind of law, whereas you weren't allowed to drink in public, as you're only allowed to drink in the certain designated shops, which seems like they were more or less the ancient bars or pubs for ancient India. And, of course, there was a superintendent of commerce, which was kind of like a general commissioner that had a pretty vast responsibility for overseeing the internal and external trade and ultimately would have been responsible for monitoring various price fluctuations of a lot of different products. In addition, the commissioner would have been responsible for overseeing the market and distribution of a wide variety of products that the state had a monopoly over.
Speaker 1:Now, to make trade happen more efficiently, the state had created and maintained the roads that would have led in and out of the cities and connected the various trade hubs on the subcontinent. One of the most important things in maintaining the road system was making sure it was safe from robbers, because ancient societies were notoriously dangerous for caravans and if you didn't have a strong central state, it would have been highly unlikely that there would have been safe and secure road systems. So, for example, the Silk Road became extremely safe when the Mongols were in charge, because nobody was going to mess around and find out. As a weird little side note, that has nothing really to do with this episode, but I lived in a few neighborhoods in Brooklyn that were traditionally viewed as having a mob presence and I could tell you that there was almost no crime in my neighborhoods. And I could tell you that there was almost no crime in my neighborhoods. Now, that could be just a coincidence, or people back in the day really didn't want to find out if they were going to bring heat to the neighborhood. But anyway, getting back on track Now, one thing I didn't mention yet, and it's worth noting, is that certain commodities were only to be sold by the Brahmins because they were the highest caste and only they could have the right to sell those goods.
Speaker 1:In other words, they were setting up a system where the wealthy stayed wealthy and everybody else could not move up, and obviously, if you're selling goods that are of the highest value, you're going to continue to stay on top of the social caste system. There was also a separate department, known as the Department of Navigation, that oversaw the harbors and bridges. In addition, they would have been responsible for protecting against threats of pirates. With that being said, even though the Brahmins could sell certain goods, they still had to adhere to certain policies and prices established by the state. In addition, they could only sell and store goods in designated places.
Speaker 1:Now, this wasn't a static thing, because the state was constantly revising the prices that they could be charged of, which the standard idea was that any product that was made internally could be raised so that the seller could receive a 5% margin. For any imported good, the seller could receive a 10% margin, and if anybody tried to price gouge, they would expect to be fined by the government. Additionally, there were rules set in place, whereas the seller was required to inform the buyer if the goods had any kind of defects. In addition, if there was a contract set up, the seller had to deliver goods to the buyer. The seller would be fined if he did not deliver the goods at all or on a timely manner. On the flip side, the buyer could be fined if he did not accept the goods upon delivery.
Speaker 1:Now, since the state had a monopoly and control of prices on many of the goods and for certain taxes and fees on the sale of these goods, then there would be an incentive to smuggle certain goods so that the officials couldn't intervene to control the price or collect certain duties, so therefore, there was extensive rules for punishing any person caught smuggling or were trying to sell any goods that was on a government restricted list. This punishment could vary widely, but one thing that was for certain is that the goods would have been confiscated and, similarly, if one was caught manipulating certain weights and measures, they could also face punishments, as this was essentially fraud. Now, just like modern societies of today, they prioritize national security when implementing their overall economic trade policy. Certain goods would have been banned if the government deemed them to be harmful. In addition, they would have actively encouraged the importation of items through tax breaks or limited tariffs for items that were vital to the health and economy or defense. As part of this process, the government would have issued passports for certain foreigners that brought goods into the state. As part of this, they kept a close eye on these foreign merchants to make sure that they weren't smuggling banned goods or not claiming all the items for the purposes of tax evasion. And when I say keep a close eye, I mean they employed spies to actively monitor these merchants Because, like I said prior, they had a large network of spies that were working inside the empire, chandragupta Myra strengthened his power and military, allowing him to capture numerous Indian territories from Greek satraps who were appointed after Alexander the Great's death.
Speaker 1:By 317 BCE, all the Macedonian satraps had been removed from the Indian territories or were killed by the king. However, it wasn't going to be smooth sailing either, because in 312 BCE, seleucus I rose to power with the formation of his new Hellenistic power called the Seleucid Empire that extended from Mesopotamia and Syria and moved east, also, taking most of Anatolia and the Iranian plateau. Channagoup de Myra didn't face Seleucus I until the Seleucid-Myran War in 305 BCE, but unfortunately we just don't have many written details surrounding the war. But we know that the war ended in 303 BCE with a treaty between the two of them. But the treaty was enhanced through marriages as Chanakya Myra married Helena, the daughter of the king of the Sulukid Empire. And, just to be clear, chanakya had another wife already, because polygamy was customary and part of the tradition in ancient India regarding the kings. But marriage wasn't the only part of the tradition in ancient India regarding the kings. But marriage wasn't the only part of the treaty.
Speaker 1:Seleucus also gave up part of his eastern provinces. In return, chanagupta became his ally and gave him 500 war elephants, which was vital for Seleucus to maintain his power against his opponents, who were also Alexander's former generals and also family members who were fighting over his territories. So, in other words, the Seleucid Empire didn't have the capabilities to run a multi-front war against more than one enemy. So it made sense to politically align themselves with the people farthest east of the empire, and that they would have also gained additional strength through the alliance and also receiving goods in return. But, more importantly, this allowed his limited resources that wouldn't be deployed in regions that were distracting him from his real enemies, which were the former generals of Alexander the Great.
Speaker 1:So while the Greeks were all fighting each other, chandragupta continued his expansionist policies after 302 BCE, as he had a stable and secure border between two great powers. As such, he was able to expand his empire south into the Deccan Plateau, which meant that he had nearly the entire Indian subcontinent under his rule, and from there the subcontinent was divided into different territories, of which each territory would be governed by an individual. Despite all his successes, chandragupta would essentially become a victim of his own success, as he would rarely leave the palace because well he was well aware of all the dangers of being a king Either way. Whether he felt he was a prisoner in his own palace or not, the fact is, his empire became extremely wealthy and depended greatly on trade and other commerce from within his own kingdom or even externally, through other kingdoms abroad. And in order to really do this, he had to expand his vast road network and even created manufacturing centers that would have connected to the road network. And by expanding his road network, what I mean by that is he added more roads and he even widened certain roads as well, which meant that more goods can flow into and out of the designated trade centers. And to give you an idea of the sheer size I mean, one example is the capital was connected to Texilia, which would have directly connected the two with a thousand mile long highway, which was used primarily for trade, but also would have been used for civilian and military travel, along with postal transportation.
Speaker 1:Now, with everything being said about their trade and commerce, really, unfortunately, probably one of the longest lasting effects from this era would have been its caste system that was expanded. Now, to be clear, the caste system wasn't necessarily based on birthright, but was more based on occupation, but to me that feels like almost like a circular argument, because your occupation, a lot of times, is going to be dependent upon what your father or mother's occupation was. So, yeah, your caste system isn't really necessarily based upon your birthright, but the fact is is who you're born to will ultimately depend on what your career path will probably be guided towards. What your career path will probably be guided towards, of which the caste system was divided into more or less seven categories. The first of the seven castes were the Brahmins, which were the priests and teachers. The second caste were the farmers. The third caste was the shepherd and the hunters, and there's some regulations that were put in place in this caste, as only shepherds and hunters were allowed to trade, breed and hunt animals, so there was a form of protection for this caste, who were guided towards this profession. The fourth caste were the artisans, day laborers and traders. The fifth caste caste were the soldiers.
Speaker 1:In a weird way, this caste seems like it was the most laid back out of all of them, and this is due to the fact that it kind of reminds me of the soldiers fighting in the trenches of World War I, whereas you could die at any given moment if an order is given to go to battle, but between battles the soldiers would be doing a lot of inactivity and there was a lot of boredom, which meant that there was lots of drinking. And it sounds like that's exactly what these soldiers did during this time period, because even if they weren't fighting, they were still getting paid, just like you would see with modern soldiers. But one major difference was the soldiers were often used as a police force, as they made sure law and order was upheld and safeguarded the trade routes. So while they weren't off fighting battles, all the time they were enabling trade to flourish, because safeguarding trade routes meant trade can flourish. Sometimes they also acted as messengers, and they were often used in their engineering skills for infrastructure projects during peacetime as well as well. So it sounds like the empire was able to afford a standing army of at least 80,000 soldiers who lived off the empire's treasury.
Speaker 1:The sixth caste consisted of inspectors, who were essentially spies, or maybe even they could be viewed as secret police who would report anything that was suspicious. The seventh caste was the king's officers who worked at the court or were in other public offices. This included ministers, governors, judges and other administrative workers. In addition, there were special tax collectors and census officers who would record the deaths of all the people in the empire. But the census didn't stop there they also counted cattle, including the death of the cattle. The main purpose for the census was it enabled the king to fully understand how to tax the population and thus create budgets for his treasury, and it's important to note that these taxes were often used to fund massive infrastructure projects, such as the Great Road, which played a key part in the expansion of the Mauryan trade, and it also would have been a communication device that made it more efficient between cities and other regions, which obviously is important if you're going to secure your outer regions. And, just as important, allow communication for trade, which helps make trade more efficient, as you can find out which products are available to be shipped from other regions and which regions needed what to come in.
Speaker 1:Another interesting thing about these tax collectors was the fact that they were used to ensure better public health. Tax collectors was the fact that they were used to ensure better public health. Chandragutta ensured a great number of hospitals would be built and maintained, and also they employed doctors, nurses and even midwives. Healthcare was available to everyone and it was free for all, which, in all honesty, is kind of crazy in the fact that 2300 years ago in India they had a national healthcare system and we still can't get one here in the United States.
Speaker 1:I previously brought up the fact that the military was also used for law and order, but also it was used to build numerous judicial courts which would have handled criminal as well as civil cases. Of course, this was an empire, so it was the king who ultimately made the final decision as far as justice goes. An interesting side note is if someone was sentenced to death for something that they had done, they could have been comforted with this condemned person by offering him a chance to donate valuables so that they can have the possibility of a better afterlife in their reincarnation. Now it's also interesting to note that women could also serve as guards for the king and could work as high government officials, so there was a little bit more equality than one might think of in the ancient society. In fact, women were absolutely protected by law, so mistreatment of women was prohibited. Now, I really don't know what that means to say mistreatment of women is prohibited, because I'm not 100% sure what that means, but I take it to mean that a man was not allowed to beat up his wife and get away with it. However, there were some quirks, I must say so. For example, polygamy was outlawed, except for the king. However, a common man could marry more than one single woman if his primary wife was unable to give birth, was unable to give birth.
Speaker 1:In India, it became somewhat of a normal thing for Indian rulers to give up their throne. This may be because it was a tradition that was deeply rooted in Jainism. So in 297 BCE, chandigarh abdicated the throne and let his son rule in his stead. Legend states that the king had 16 dreams that brought nightmares during his days. As such, his son was named to be the king of the Mayan Empire. Another thing has it that it was Chandragutta had died during meditation, as he was ritually starving himself to death, a practice known as Salakana. Now, with his son, bindusara was on the throne.
Speaker 1:We have one major issue in that almost no information related to his life has basically survived. Basically everything we know was information that was written probably a thousand years after he died. So no one can be 100% sure what happened during his reign or what his life was like. There's certain speculation that his mother may have even been Greek. We're not really sure, but according to legend, chandragupta's chief minister and guru planned and executed a strategy to protect the king against a potential poisoning. In other words, to do this, chandrakara would routinely microdose various poisons in Chandragupta's food. This, obviously, was designed to ensure that he'd build up intolerance over the years.
Speaker 1:One day, the king's wife was pregnant. The king decided to share his meal with his wife, but he didn't know that his portion had contained the poison. To make matters worse, apparently the queen was only a week away from giving birth. As she ate the very small amount that had the poison in it, the queen became very sick and died almost instantly right in front of her husband. Chanakira proposed to save the baby while he still could. He decapitated the dead queen with a sword and cut her womb open to get the baby out. However, he noticed a drop of poison had touched the baby's head. This is how Bindusara got his name. When translated from Sanskrit, bindu means drop. Bindusara as a whole means the strength of the drop. To keep the baby alive until he was supposed to be born, chanakira ordered a goat to be killed and cut open so he could place the baby inside. After seven days, bindusara was born again.
Speaker 1:Bindisara is said to have 101 sons with 16 wives, but this may or may not be true. It isn't so much his kids that became the story, it was his succession that became the stuff of legend. One of his sons, by the name of Ashoka, was appointed as a governor of one of his provinces. Word on the street was that Bindisara had died and, as a result, ashoka knew that his time was short, so he had to move fast in order to take power for himself. So he hurried himself back to the capital and quickly had 99 of his brothers eliminated, but he left one brother, named Shishima, alive, because it was his full brother, as they shared the same mother.
Speaker 1:Now some seem to think that Shishima was the preferred choice as the heir to the throne, but in the end, a council of 500 had to vote on the successor. But it sounds like Shishima was a bit of a hothead and, as a result, many of the council weren't too keen on him being the new king. And ultimately, the issue wasn't that the king was already dead. Instead, the king wanted to abdicate his throne, just like his father had done before him. Bindisara's choice was that his eldest son, tsushima, be appointed the king, but the council of 500 didn't agree. Instead, they wanted Ashoka to be the king. So while Ashoka was heading back to the capital, tsushima also heard the news and was heading back as well. However, one of the council members had intercepted Tsushima and somehow or another tricked him into going to a pit of burning coal where he would die.
Speaker 1:Now the council must have known something, because it was a fantastic choice, as he would later be known as Ashoka the Great, as he ruled from around 268 BCE to about 232 BCE. So, even though he was the third emperor of the Mauryan Empire and a strong and powerful ruler, he was basically unknown until a British historian named James Princep had discovered evidence of his existence in 1837, more than 2,000 years after Ashoka's death. What is interesting is how his biography may have been exaggerated to make him out to be an unusually cruel and even brutal ruler who was driven by ambition. By making him look terrible at first, buddhist writers could show how Buddhism allowed Ashoka to change his evil ways and convert him into a generous and adored king.
Speaker 1:But before Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism, the king was focused on plunder and conquest and as such, he naturally looked around and then set his gates towards the affluent kingdom of Kalinga, which, until 321 BCE was ruled by the Nanda Empire, would have been a modern day CEO who understood supply chains and the importance of information, as he had established an extravagant network of trading outposts and, more importantly, he controlled the coastline which connected the kingdom's trade network to the Bay of Bengal, which ultimately gave them access to markets in Malay and Java. What this ultimately meant was the kingdom could raise necessary funds for self-defense, but with his network in place, the Kalinga king could easily cut communication between the capital of the Marwan empire and the rest of central India. But either way, the people of the Kalinga region weren't necessarily known for having a great army, but because of their trade, they had a strong navy and they were generally viewed as peaceful people. Since the Kalinga king had his vast trade network, he felt like he was secure enough to be an independent minded person from the rest of India. It's because of this he didn't feel the need to kiss the ring of Ashoka, which meant a great offense, and he was like fine, you don't want to pay the proper tribute to my empire?
Speaker 1:Then, as far as Ashoka saw it, it meant war. This war would be very bloody, as it sounds like there were up to 250,000 casualties, making it probably the deadliest war in Indian history up to that point. And apparently this shook up Ashoka so much because he apparently witnessed children wandering alone trying to find the bodies of the dead parents, while widows desperately look for their husbands' bodies. His reaction to all this was something kind of unexpected, in my opinion, because it always feels like many kings in history are partly, if not entirely, psychopaths, meaning that they were callous, unemotional and cold-hearted who really didn't know how to show any kind of empathy whatsoever to people that were casualties of war. But something happened to Ashoka and he started to blame himself for it all, which isn't something you'd really expect to hear from an ancient king, even though Mario had won the war. The king of Mario felt like he had lost, or the King of Maria felt like he had lost. He decided to take a path of nonviolence and turn to Buddhism, which meant that all the war campaigns ceased at once. For the next four decades in the Mauryan Empire, they wouldn't see bloodshed in the kingdom at all.
Speaker 1:Ashoka uses wealth from plunder to build over 84,000 Buddhist temples and monasteries, and of course the 84,000 is probably a bit of an exaggeration because it's probably a bit of a legend at this point, but the story goes that Ashoka would have sent officers to check on the welfare of the people and respond to their needs as they saw fit In Nepal, the supposed birthplace of Buddha. Ashoka eventually made a pilgrimage there two decades after his conversion to Buddhism. Furthermore, to pay homage to the people of Mumbini, which was where the Buddha was born, ashoka accepted them from any kind of taxes and asked only for an eighth of their yearly crops. Ashoka was able to get converts to Buddhism, but not as many as you think, as most of the people inhabiting the Mauryan Empire weren't Buddhists and they weren't willing to convert to Buddhism either. Ashoka wanted that to maintain the image of a strong king according to this philosophy, so he wouldn't implement Buddhism as a state religion, as he believed no man should place his religion over someone else's, as he believed no man should place his religion over someone else's.
Speaker 1:In the Mauryan Empire, the other major religions were those practiced in the Zora-Astrianism, hinduism, jainism and Greek polytheism, in addition to Buddhism. Jainism might not be one of the more well-known religions, but it is one of the oldest in India. Its core belief was to have non-violence, non-attachment and non-absolutism. The Jains were vegetarians for the most part and really believed in a relatively simple lifestyle, because they preached that one shouldn't own too many possessions and really should live their life dedicated to serving the truth, of which stealing was absolutely frowned upon. Now, they didn't necessarily pray to a deity per se, so they were kind of in the gray area of being spiritual, but weren't necessarily theistic or even atheistic. But they don't really necessarily believe that the universe was created by God, because it's just always been there and, just like Buddhism, who will come later, they also believed in reincarnation. In addition, the symbol that is most recognizable that came out of the Jain tradition was that of the swastika. I'm pretty sure a lot, if not most, of you have probably heard of the fact that the swastika came out of India, but it did come out more precisely from Jainism. Now the swastika actually comes from Sanskrit and prosperity, while the left-facing symbol is supposed to reference night or tantric aspects of Kali. In Jain symbolism it represents the 7th of 24 spiritual teachers and saviors, while in Buddhist symbolism it represents the footprint of the Buddha symbolism it represents the footprint of the Buddha. As for Hinduism, it is currently the third largest religion in the world. Today, around 8 million people in India are Buddhists. Internationally, buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world, with China having the largest Buddhist population.
Speaker 1:Zoroastrianism was founded in the 5th century BCE by an Iranian prophet Zoroastrian. The religion will thrive in a cumulative Persian empire, and Zoroastrianism was an early monotheistic religion that may have had a major influence on the Abrahamic religions, with their belief in free will and judgment after death and the concept of heaven, hell, angels and demons. It is still around today, making it one of the world's oldest continually practiced religions. One of the more interesting practices that is still in use is the idea of sky burials, where dead bodies would be placed in an open area and they would be picked clean by vultures. In April of 2023, the podcast Radiolab actually did an episode on the practice of sky burials. Additionally, it's also worth noting that the Amarian Empire also saw a rise of the religious followers of Greek polytheism, and that would make sense because Alexander the Great had such a major influence upon that particular region before he died.
Speaker 1:So, getting back to Ashoka, after ruling for more than 40 years, he died, leaving the throne to his grandson, dasharatha, and, like most great empires, when you have a great ruler and he passes on. Typically that's kind of the inflection point where you start to see the particular empire really kind of go on a slow decline. You know a future descendant can revive the empire, but in this particular case this was pretty much the signal of the downfall of the Mauryan empire and really, in all honesty, it really started with Dasaratha's uncle, jaluka, who founded an independent kingdom in Kashmir, which is located in the northwest of Indian subcontinent, and then one of his nobles, varasena, became the self-proclaimed king of Gandhara. The empire was basically shrinking at this point. Then what you have is you have Sampradaya, who would become the king after Dasaratha had died, and Sampradaya appeared to reverse some of the empire's previous losses and he actually managed to retrieve some of the providence that had departed during Dasaratha's reign. Unlike his grandfather, ashoka, sampradaya wasn't a Buddhist. Instead, he was into Jainism, so he wasn't out there spreading the word of Buddha like his grandfather was. Instead, he was spreading the word of Jainism and, as a result, the Jain tradition really credits Sampradaya as a patron monk of the faith and, just like his grandfather, he spent a lot of his resources on building and fixing Jain temples and erecting statues of idols across the Mauryan Empire. But, like I said, he wasn't doing it for Buddhism, he was doing it for Jainism. So they were kind of doing the same thing but with different religious faiths. A few generations later, brihadrita would be the last king of the Maran Empire and he ruled for three brief years, ending his reign in 180 BCE. And, in all honesty, the reason why he only reigned for three years was because he was usurped by his general, pushamitra Shunga, who then took over the throne and established the Shunga Empire. So the Mauryan Empire is done.
Speaker 1:But before I move on from the Mauryan Empire, I really think it's a good time to recap the use of coinage in this particular empire, and more or less it consisted almost exclusively of silver of roughly 3.4 grams, but there were also some copper coins as well. They were pretty uniform as well, as they typically contained five punches. Now, this is a continuation of the Magahan coins that were in use before the Marian Empire Also. Also, they typically contain a stamp of of an item such as the sun with a six arm sign, and the three other symbols were like sometimes used like an elephant, the tree on a fence emblem and uh and the mountains were also symbols that were used, and in some cases they used some geometrical symbols as well.
Speaker 1:Later in the empire, some of the coins in this series also had a punch on the reverse side of the coin. Unfortunately, no one is really sure what the punches mean, though, but it is believed that the Morian coins were punched with a royal standard to verify that they were real and not counterfeit, because private minting of coins appears to have been a crime during this time period. Another thing that was kind of noticed is the evolution of the coins, because they also tended to get a bit smaller but thicker. Since a lot of information appears to be lacking from this time, people have deduced that the economy must have been flourishing because they were minting the coins, and basically in the millions, in fact, so many were produced that stockpiles of Marian coins are still being discovered to this day, and as a result of simple supply and demand curves, these ancient coins are relatively inexpensive to buy if you are a collector. One interesting thing is no one really knows for sure which coins were issued by which kings, and it isn't clear when the Magahan coins had ended, that series had ended and the Marian coins had began, because they're so similar, that series had ended and the Marian coins had began because they were so similar.
Speaker 1:And one other thing too, about the Marian Empire was, the fact is, by the time Ashoka had been on the throne, basically the Indian version of the military industrial complex was showing signs of strain. And, like countless kings and dictators, we see signs of debasement of the coinage which, over the course of two centuries or so, had gone from almost pure silver to about 50% copper. Also, we see the rise of various guilds that ultimately played a major part in channeling trade. These guilds were generally required to be registered with the town authority and the activities of the guild members were required to follow strict guidelines. So it sounds like they had pretty strong regulatory compliance. That was required for each particular guild and, as you can imagine, there were different.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say cast, but there were definitely different levels of wealth and prestige for each particular guild that was out there. The wealthier guilds employed slaves and hired laborers, but the percentages of slaves appears to have been quite small. Guilds also had their own seals and insignia, so you can kind of really figure out which guild is which. And since they were notoriously protective of the guild, they were also able to limit the competition and therefore some became extremely profitable and therefore they frequently made extravagant donations to either the Buddhist or the Jain monasteries, and some of the finest Buddhist monuments of the period resulted from such patronage. In some areas it wasn't uncommon for members of the royal family to invest money with a particular guild and the interest returns became a regular donation to the temple. I'm guessing this was more for them to get a certain level of prestige for the guild. So it's probably kind of like the modern day philanthropist who donates a lot of money to a particular charity or a library or whatever and they put their name all over it.
Speaker 1:So people remember that you know this is the Rockefeller center or this is Carnegie hall or whatever. It is Right. I mean, some of these people had really shady and pretty nasty backgrounds and they, you know, they want to make up for it in in using their wealth to potentially spread good. Now, as India as a whole had progressed and developed since the days of the Indus Valley civilizations, they were really like most ancient people in that they lived fairly mundane lives. Another thing was the living conditions of India had progressed since the Indus Valley as it had became more apparent that the Indians' population was diversified economically as well, as certain different socioeconomic classes were also being developed, as we mentioned prior, which the Indus Valley didn't really have much of that.
Speaker 1:Remember that they're very uniform in nature. We could tell, because a lot of it comes from the fact that the housing really started to be differentiated, which really indicates that we start to see more of the haves versus the have-nots. The one thing that they did that was a lot like the people-assumer was they had built flat roofs which the people could sleep on at night when it was extremely hot outside. Another way to differentiate the various wealth classes was to take a look at the types of clothing that the people wore. Generally speaking, the wealthier people would have worn more colorful and layered robes. In addition, the wealthy women would have worn gold jewelry along with other precious stones. I mean, in reality, bigger homes, more expensive clothing and jewelry is really it's kind of really a modern thing anyway. So not a lot has changed. I guess you could say so in that way, we really shouldn't be surprised to learn that the wealthy people had bigger homes and wore better clothes and were flashier people because they could afford to and were flashier people because they could afford to.
Speaker 1:And another thing that is very modern is the fact that the people of ancient India would have typically had three meals a day. Of course, they probably didn't consume as much protein as we do nowadays because, you know, a typical American meal, for example, would include eggs quite a bit, but of course they didn't have large scale farming. Example would include eggs quite a bit, but of course they didn't have large-scale farming. So in ancient India their breakfast would have typically consisted of porridge with dates or other forms of basic wheat. Since India as a whole grows a lot of its own natural fruits because it's in the tropics, or at least near the tropics, fruit would have played a major part in the diet in the tropics, or at least near the tropics. Fruit would have played a major part in the diet, especially during their lunch. For dinner, they would typically eat barley or peas, while the wealthy would have been able to have access to some sort of meat, which in many cases would have come from the poor, who would have hunted for their food and sold the meat to the wealthy. So ultimately, when you look at this episode, along with my previous episodes discussing the Indus Valley, you'll see that trade had expanded and, in this particular case, coinage was developed and used.
Speaker 1:No one really knows for sure how the people of the Indus transacted during their trade. It most likely was some sort of credit system, but for the longest time it was always assumed that the ancient societies relied upon barter. But, like I said in previous episodes, the problem with barter is there really isn't any written examples of it actually happening. But that was always taught in my schools, especially my economics classes, that this is how ancient people had transacted before the advent of money. Now it is quite possible that these people the Indus and early ancient Indian societies had utilized some sort of barter. But, like I said, there just isn't any records of it happening. But, at the same time, no one has been able to decipher their writings. We can decipher Sanskrit, so we have a much better idea of what they were using as far as any kind of transactions were happening. Now, it's quite possible that the early Indian and Indus Valley people had used grains as some sort of money, sort of like in the Sumer, where you would have a bank that stored the grains and then you would get a receipt for the grain and you can pass on that receipt to somebody else. So it's quite possible they had a similar system in ancient Indus Valley civilizations and also in early ancient Indian civilizations as well.
Speaker 1:Now I'm bringing up the Indus Valley right now because I just wanted to show how the people of the Indian subcontinent had evolved economically through trade and then eventually through coinage. The one thing we do know that was in high demand from the Indian subcontinent all the way back to the days of the Indus Valley, you know as far back as 5000 BCE, and would continue literally thousands of years to modern day, was their ability to grow cotton and weave and sew, to make clothing that was in high demand outside of the subcontinent. But it wasn't just cotton clothing that was also high demand. They were also making clothing that was made out of wool, linen and even silk to a lesser extent. So in reality you can see that the Indus Valley and then the subcontinent, always had something to offer to the outside world, especially Europeans and people from the Near East the outside world, especially Europeans and people from the Near East and it's this fact that really led to the period that came after the fall of the Mauryan Empire, as this would really be known as the Indo-Greek era.
Speaker 1:Now, this era really began with the death of Alexander, so more or less, it was just kind of the slow burn that was slowly integrating into the subcontinent. And you combine this with the fall of the Mauryan Empire and really what you get is you get a lot of outside forces that were able to easily infiltrate the Indian subcontinent as a whole, and really what was happening was you start to see a blend of the Hindu and Greek religions, including Buddhism, which also meant a blend of ancient Greek symbols with Indian symbols, along with art and architecture. So you really start to see real blending of the cultures. Now, as far as art goes, one could make the case that the golden age of art in India would probably be the Mauryan Empire. And as for architecture, one of the more interesting buildings that was built during this era was the prison that from the outside looks like this beautiful building, but once you open up the doors, you quickly realize that it was a place of absolute torture. In fact, it was known as Ashoka's Hell. Of course, this comes from secondhand accounts because it's never been found. So it's quite possible that Ashoka's Hell is really nothing more than a myth, is really nothing more than a myth. Much of the great architecture and art as a whole would have been found in the city of Paduraputra, which was the capital of the Maran Empire, which was quite large at this time as it probably held as many as 150,000 to 400,000 people. So it was a major city back then, and the city has since changed its name and now is known as Kamar.
Speaker 1:So essentially, we're at a point in the story whereas the ancient Indian subcontinent will have a great Greek influence, from art to architecture, to government and trade. In fact, where I'm at in the story is we're in the Indo-Greek kingdom, which would put us around 190 BCE, and the reason why it is known as the Indo-Greek kingdom is because the Greco-Bactrian king or general for his father, demetrius, made its way into the subcontinent out of the destabilization that was caused by the fall of the Marian Empire. Now, I mentioned Bactria a few times in the past and I just want to reiterate that this is a region that would be located in modern day Afghanistan. To give you an idea of where it's located, and for me personally, this is where it gets a little confusing for me, because it really begs the question would this be an episode that's more appropriate for the Greeks when I discuss the Greek empires. Or is this Indian? Or can I just do a whole episode about Bactria, which will also bleed into ancient China as well, because Bactria is located in a place that will be important for the trade that's coming through China and then into Europe, because this will be part of the Silk Road.
Speaker 1:And the reason we say Indo-Greek is because these were fragmented kingdoms that were almost always separated from Bactria and thus differed politically from the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. So basically, you have a migration of Greek settlers that were moving into the subcontinent, but what they end up doing is becoming more Indian as time went on and therefore they would have created their own unique culture that ended up being separate from the other city-state kingdoms that blended ideas from Greek and the subcontinent, which extended into places like Western Punjab, which meant that they had the Indians of the Sunga dynasty as its neighbors. But they did something that was kind of typical of the Greeks of the ancient world, in that they would have developed their own little city-states and cultures, but of course, like the Greeks of the ancient world, they would have fought with each other, just like their Greco-Bactrian neighbors, because the one thing you can always count on with the ancient Greeks is that they will always be cousins that got along at some point and then were at each other's throats at other times. So this is no different than the Ionian Greeks on Anatolia or the Greeks that were living on the mainland. But the one thing these new kingdoms and republics did was they began to mint their own coinage, which often would have depicted some kind of military victory, along with an image of the king or some leader of the era.
Speaker 1:The Greco-Bactrians were the first in the world to issue nickel coins. That were issued around 170 BCE and they were known by the Chinese as white copper. And, like I said just a bit ago, bactria was essentially the entry point into Europe from the Chinese exporters, of which the Chinese metals, in particular iron, was extensively traded. And getting back to the nickel coins now, this is pretty significant because copper nickel would not be used again in coinage until the 19th century and, due to its location and various cultural influences, bactrian kings struck bilingual coins with Indian and Greek inscriptions. They also merged Indian deities such as the Hindu deities or even the Buddha. They also used various Indian symbols, such as the lion or the elephant, along with the Buddhist symbols as well. Even further in the subcontinent we see more of the standard silver drachmas, but they depict Hindu deities. But that wasn't exclusively Hindu deities. We also see Greek deities that remain prevalent in the coinage as well.
Speaker 1:And for the next couple hundred years you'll see kind of ebbs and flows as some small kingdoms get a little stronger and invade other kingdoms, maybe win a few battles here and there and then gain some ground and then get pushed back, and it just kind of went on and on and in reality the end result was you basically have the subcontinent being highly fragmented and therefore you really didn't have an opportunity to unite the entire subcontinent, or at least most of it. And while all this is going on, the Scythians were migrating from the border of China and started to invade Bactria from the north. Around 130 BCE, the last Greco-Bactrian king was killed during the invasion and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom basically came to an end. Also, the Parthians were also responsible for the downfall of the Bactrian kingdom as well. Immediately after the fall of Bactria, coinage was changed to reflect the new ownership of the region. These new bronze coins now incorporated the Scythian-type bow inside a victory wreath, which would symbolize these nomadic people who originated from the steppe, nomadic people who originated from the steppe.
Speaker 1:So essentially, what happens is the subcontinent had been changing and evolving and you know the fragmentation led to the rise of numerous Algargis. The frequent use of the term Ganga, which means group, on the Yad Hia coins indicate an adherence to a tribal tradition as well. In addition to the Algarcys, there were small monarchical states as well. Now it's important to note that these kingdoms and Algarcys all would rely upon trade, extending outward into the other kingdoms and regions and even other civilizations that were far from the Indian subcontinent. So just because they were fragmented doesn't mean they didn't have an economy that interacted with each other. So trade was still very prevalent and the primary maritime trade would have occurred from the subcontinent through the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and then from there goods would have been picked up and traveled overland into places like Egypt and beyond. Additionally, maritime trade headed east into Southeast Asia where, as you can imagine, it was where the spices were and this was the most desired products. There was also trade that was conducted through the river systems, but it was overland trade that was just as, if not more, important, especially within the subcontinents.
Speaker 1:The Greeks would refer to the roads as the royal highway that would have led directly to the main port in the Gandhi's Delta. So in the grand scheme of things, the subcontinent would have looked almost like a spider web connecting all the various regions with each other. Once you start to add up all the roads, the river systems and the ports on the coast, you can see how everything was interconnected. The northern routes would have allowed the people of the Indus Valley to reach Bactria and establish trade in places like modern day Kabul, and from there they would have linked up through the Caspian Sea and also through the Black Seas. In addition, they would have connected China directly to Bactria through the Silk Road, of which Indian merchants would have established trading stations at various oasis towns along the route, so the traders would have a place to stop, rest, get food and drink and then move on. Therefore, chinese goods were able to flow in large quantities into India, of which ceramics and silks were the most popular. The trade volume was so lucrative in northern India that gold coins became very common and were circulating throughout that particular region.
Speaker 1:And eventually, trade between India and Rome would be extremely important to both parties. In fact, it appears that certain textiles were produced precisely for Roman specifications and exported from parts of the subcontinent. Textiles weren't the only export, as India also shipped pepper, precious stones such as pearls and ivory, and even silk, and for the Romans part, they would have sent to India items such as glass and copper, tin, lead and even wine. More goods were imported into Rome than exported and, as a result, gold coins were flowing back to India. However, it appears that it is unlikely that anybody from India would have actually carried goods all the way directly to Rome. So middlemen would have been obviously very vital to the operation, but I should be clear in the fact that there was diplomatic relations. That would have happened face to face between various Roman and Indian dignitaries. In fact, shortly after Octavian ascended as Augustus, in fact, shortly after Octavian ascended as Augustus, various rulers from India sent him tribute in the form of gifts such as precious stones and elephants and even snakes, and by all accounts, augustus was extremely honored and went on to exhibit these exotic items in his home. That wasn't even the end of it, because in India they even built some temples in his honor. Furthermore, roman citizens were granted free passage throughout the subcontinent and, as such, trade colonies were established in India that lasted up to 200 CE.
Speaker 1:The trade was conducted with gold and silver coins, of which the coins would have been dated to the emperor of the Roma at the time. In fact, a horde of coins were discovered in southern India that were dated to the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, and they even found coins from the much maligned Caligula and even then through Claudius and even Nero. So we're talking about a time frame from 27 BCE to about 68 CE. With such a large number of coins that were discovered, it would have been an indication that there was significant trade that was happening between India and Rome, indication that there was significant trade that was happening between India and Rome. And the reason why we tend to think that the trade with Rome lasted up until about 200 CE is because Roman coins virtually disappeared after the death of Marcus Aurelius in around 180 CE. Now, if you're not too familiar with the Roman history, marcus Aurelius was the Roman emperor named in the movie Gladiator. Now I'll get into it a much later date.
Speaker 1:But one of the main issues with using gold or silver or any other metal as a base for your currency is, if you are trading with foreigners, you want to be a net exporter. You don't want to be a net importer, because if you're a net exporter then you can import a lot of gold or silver. But if you are a net importer, then what's going to happen is you're going to have a net outflow of silver or gold or whatever kind of metal you use to pay with. Then this would mean, if you are a net importer, that your currency would get depleted and you would be left with a serious shortage. This could mean that local commerce or paying soldiers could become extremely tricky. The Roman intellectual Pliny the Elder knew this quite well and began a campaign complaining that the Indian luxury trade was depleting the Roman treasury. Now we'll see something very similar 1,600 years later, when the Europeans are basically shipping all their plundered South American silver to China.
Speaker 1:The fact is is the world was becoming more and more monetized when conducting trade, which meant the role of the financier and the banker would become a crucial linchpin in many economic activities. As such, it wasn't uncommon for the wealthier guilds to offer financial services. However, they only played a fraction of the banking role, as the more usual source of money was the merchant banker, with all the bullion flowing in along with the coinage that was extensively brought in the various kingdoms. Well, this meant that the Indian kingdoms would increasingly need to mint and re-mint currency, which would have required a high level of craftsmanship. The most widely used coins were the gold denarius and stuvarnas, which were based on the Roman denarius, which was about 8 grams. By the way, there was also silver coins circulated, such as the early karshapanas, which were about 3.75 grams, and the shatamanas, and, just like in china, there was an even wider range of copper coins, such as the masa and the kakini. In addition, there were other coins that were issued in lead, particular in western india, and, like I said prior, the bud.
Speaker 1:The Buddhist monks essentially okayed the idea of usury, so this was a widely accepted part of the credit market, with 15% being the typical rate of interest, although this varied according to the enterprise and probably the risk level of the borrower. Expanding trade also induced a multiplicity of weights and measures due to the general nature of the subcontinent being so fragmented around the rise of the Roman Empire. So the fact is is not having a standardized way to measure throughout the subcontinent would have made trade a little bit more inefficient. Now, going back to the maritime trade, an important discovery would have been made around 45 CE by a Greek navigator. That would have made overseas travel much more efficient and even safer when he discovered the fact that the monun winds would blow in a certain direction for a set amount of time and then, about six months later, the winds would be blowing in reverse.
Speaker 1:Now this is something I'll get into much more later, at a different date and a different episode, when we start discussing the international trade that was established by people like Ibn Battuta, but long before him. The Matsun winds would help propel a major boost in international trade into and out of the Indian subcontinent, specifically through the Arabian Sea. So what this meant was the Greeks kind of figured out that they could practically fly across the Indian Ocean instead of creep along like they had relied upon doing so in the past. And on top of it, it would have been a lot more dangerous if you're going against the winds on top of that. So this obviously meant that the dangerous ocean travel would have been a lot safer, by cutting down the amount of time you're at sea, because the seamen wouldn't have to worry about things like lack of water or food or even other provisions.
Speaker 1:The discovery of the monsoon winds by the Greeks meant that foreign trade increased considerably from the ports in the south of the continent. However, the interchange of ideas also appears to have been even more substantial in the north. The biggest reason the northern part of the subcontinent had been long associated with western Asia and was in part because of the influence of the Greek cultures, and particularly with the rise of Alexander the Great and his subsequent generals, who pushed their Greek ideas into the subcontinent and, as a result, what you end up seeing is you see Greek, along with Aramaic, that was widely spoken in places like modern Afghanistan and was understood in places like modern Pakistan and into places of the former Indus Valley. In a weird way, it feels like a lot of what we know about ancient India was sort of backed into, because when scholars were studying ancient Greek city-states, they ended up getting far-reaching accounts of the trade with India.
Speaker 1:In the grand scheme of things, the Indian governments encouraged private enterprise, but government intervention was much more prevalent because many of the kingdoms weren't relying upon welfare states, meaning many of the governments undertook to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need. So, in other words, market forces would have been an influential aspect in India. In fact, you could say it was very comparable to places like Mesopotamia. Now, a lot of it seems to be the fact that the Indian governments weren't really concerned about market manipulation and exploitation of the lower caste, even though the Brahmins were clearly favored in just about every type of transaction that didn't involve the government directly. Governments were kind of concerned about foreign traders in that they were worried that they might be acting as spies for foreign governments, and these spies could potentially disrupt or even manipulate certain markets, thus harming the local population and the state in general.
Speaker 1:There seems to be a general feeling that the government felt ensuring a fair and equitable market was too important to be left up to the traders and market forces in general. In fact, the government really were fearful of the formation of cartels, which they knew would manipulate prices and ultimately extract excessive profits from the buyers and the consumers. To make this even more clear the fines of 1,000 panas for each member of the cartel, regardless of the extent of price manipulation and the size of the cartel. This meant that this was the highest penalty for any economic offense during this period. This also shows that it was very serious as a crime. In other words, they viewed cartel price manipulation on the same level as robbery and, as you can imagine, not only were they fined, but the cartel members' goods were also confiscated, potentially and circling back to the 1,000 pana fine that I just mentioned a second ago, well, that probably means nothing to you because you don't really have a frame of reference or a benchmark to compare to. So, to give you an idea, a daily wage of laborers were entitled to about 15 panas per year. A daily wage of laborers were entitled to about 15 panas per year, plus food and clothing. The smallest unit of money was one half kakini, which was equal to one 128th of a pana. Goods priced at two panas or more were considered to be high value goods. So a thousand pana fine would probably be equivalent to about a 3.7 million dollar fine in US dollars if this was the United States in today's dollars.
Speaker 1:Despite all this government intervention, trade was lively and flourished during this time period. So this really kind of suggests that the price controls and other market regulations were probably just and not very disruptive In ancient India and all its various kingdoms, just like other ancient cultures and societies. Well, they were very much part of the original foundation that would be building our modern international trade. This international trade really dictated our modern societies, if you really think about it. So when people look at their smartphone, for example, they see a phone and a computer that they probably handle and probably don't think much about it. They probably don't realize that this computer that we carry around is the product of thousands of years of science and math and technology, along with manufacturing and trade, of which the Indian subcontinent played a major part, and really that's kind of the whole point behind this podcast is that I want to go through each individual region and kind of really point out that this particular region was a major influence on our modern society, so you can see where things have developed and how they developed and, as a result, I think that it's a little bit easier to understand how modern trade and banking and finance works. When you kind of really look at it from a starting point in places like India and places like Sumer and eventually when we get to Anatolia, you'll see how these ancient societies all kind of worked with each other and really built the foundation for our modern society.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you very much for taking your time to listen. I hope you learned a lot from this particular episode and these episodes in general, and if you like what you hear and want to donate to the show, you can visit us at patreoncom slash history of money banking trade or you can visit our website at moneybankingtradecom. You can also help out this show a ton by leaving a five-star review and telling someone you know about it. Thank you very much. Talk to you soon.
