Carl Clausewitz - The Strategy of Warfare – Boxed Set

As regards conch-shells, diamonds, precious stones, pearls, corals, and necklaces, experts acquainted with the time, cost, and finish of the production of such articles shall fix the amount of toll.

Of fibrous garments (kshauma), cotton cloths (dukúla), silk (krimitána), mail armour (kankata), sulphuret of arsenic (haritála), red arsenic (manassilá), vermilion (hingulaka), metals (lóha), and colouring ingredients (varnadhátu); of sandal, brown sandal (agaru), pungents (katuka), ferments (kinva), dress (ávarana), and the like; of wine, ivory, skins, raw materials used in making fibrous or cotton garments, carpets, curtains (právarana), and products yielded by worms (krimijáta); and of wool and other products yielded by goats and sheep, he shall receive 1/10th or 1/15th as toll.

Of cloths (vastra), quadrupeds, bipeds, threads, cotton, scents, medicines, wood, bamboo, fibres (valkala), skins, and clay-pots; of grains, oils, sugar (kshára), salt, liquor (madya) cooked rice and the like, he shall receive 1/20th or 1/25th as toll.

Gate-dues (dvárádeya) shall be 1/5th of toll dues; this tax may be remitted if circumstances necessitate such favour. Commodities shall never be sold where they are grown or manufactured.

When minerals and other commodities are purchased from mines, a fine of 600 panás shall be imposed.

When flower or fruits are purchased from flower or fruit gardens, a fine of 54 panas shall be imposed.

When vegetables, roots, bulbous roots are purchased from vegetable gardens, a fine 51¾ panas shall be imposed.

When any kind of grass or grain is purchased from field, a fine of 53 panas shall be imposed.

(Permanent) fines of 1 pana and 1½ panas shall be levied on agricultural produce (sítátyayah).

Hence in accordance with the customs of countries or of communities, the rate of toll shall be fixed on commodities, either old or new; and fines shall be fixed in proportion to the gravity of offences.

[Thus ends Chapter XXII, "Regulation of Toll-dues," in Book II, "The Duties of Government Superintendents" of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the forty-third chapter from the beginning.]

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THE Superintendent of Weaving shall employ qualified persons to manufacture threads (sútra), coats (varma), cloths (vastra), and ropes.

Widows, cripple women, girls, mendicant or ascetic women (pravrajitá), women compelled to work in default of paying fines (dandápratikáriní), mothers of prostitutes, old women-servants of the king, and prostitutes (devadási) who have ceased to attend temples on service shall be employed to cut wool, fibre, cotton, panicle (túla), hemp, and flax.

Wages shall be fixed according as the threads spun are fine, coarse (sthúla, i.e., big) or of middle quality and in proportion to a greater or less quantity manufactured, and in consideration of the quantity of thread spun, those (who turn out a greater quantity) shall be presented with oil and dried cakes of myrobalan fruits (tailámalakódvartanaih).

They may also be made to work on holidays (tithishu) by payment of special rewards (prativápadánamánaih).

Wages shall be cut short, if making allowance for the quality of raw material, the quantity of the threads spun out is found to fall short.

Weaving may also be done by those artisans who are qualified to turn out a given amount of work in a given time and for a fixed amount of wages.

The superintendent shall closely associate with the workmen.

Those who manufacture fibrous cloths, raiments, silk-cloths, woollen cloths, and cotton fabrics shall be rewarded by presentations such as scents, garlands of flowers, or any other prizes of encouragement.

Various kinds of garments, blankets, and curtains shall be manufactured.

Those who are acquainted with the work shall manufacture mail armour.

Those women who do not stir out of their houses (anishkásinyah), those whose husbands are gone abroad, and those who are cripple or girls may, when obliged to work for subsistence, be provided with work (spinning out threads) in due courtesy through the medium of maid-servants (of the weaving establishment.)

Those women who can present themselves at the weaving house shall at dawn be enabled to exchange their spinnings for wages (bhándavetanavinimayam). Only so much light as is enough to examine the threads shall be kept. If the superintendent looks at the face of such women or talks about any other work, he shall be punished with the first amercement. Delay in paying the wages shall be punished with the middlemost amercement. Likewise when wages are paid for work that is not completed.

She who, having received wages, does not turn out the work shall have her thumb cut off.

Those who misappropriate, steal, or run away with, (the raw material supplied to them) shall be similarly punished.

Weavers, when guilty, shall be fined out of their wages in proportion to their offences.

The superintendent shall closely associate with those who manufacture ropes and mail armour and shall carry on the manufacture of straps (varatra) and other commodities.

He shall carry on the manufacture of ropes from threads and fibres and of straps from cane and bamboo bark, with which beasts for draught are trained or tethered.

[Thus ends Chapter XXIII, "The Superintendent of Weaving" in Book II, "The Duties of Government Superintendents” of the Arthasástra of Kautilya. End of the forty-fourth chapter from the beginning.]

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POSSESSED of the knowledge of the science of agriculture dealing with the plantation of bushes and trees (krishitantragulmavrikshsháyurvedajñah), or assisted by those who are trained in such sciences, the superintendent of agriculture shall in time collect the seeds of all kinds of grains, flowers, fruits, vegetables, bulbous roots, roots, pállikya (?), fibre-producing plants, and cotton.

He shall employ slaves, labourers, and prisoners (dandapratikartri) to sow the seeds on crown-lands which have been often and satisfactorily ploughed.

The work of the above men shall not suffer on account of any want in ploughs (karshanayantra) and other necessary instruments or of bullocks. Nor shall there be any delay in procuring to them the assistence of blacksmiths, carpenters, borers (medaka), ropemakers, as well as those who catch snakes, and similar persons.

Any loss due to the above persons shall be punished with a fine equal to the loss.

The quantity of rain that falls in the country of jángala is 16 dronas; half as much more in moist countries (anúpánám); as to the countries which are fit for agriculture (désavápánam);--13½ dronas in the country of asmakas; 23 dronas in avantí; and an immense quantity in western countries (aparántánám), the borders of the Himalayas, and the countries where water channels are made use of in agriculture (kulyávápánám).

When one-third of the requisite quantity of rain falls both during the commencement and closing months of the rainy season and two-thirds in the middle, then the rainfall is (considered) very even (sushumárúpam).

A forecast of such rainfall can be made by observing the position, motion, and pregnancy (garbhádána) of the Jupiter (Brihaspati), the rise and set and motion of the Venus, and the natural or unnatural aspect of the sun.

From the sun, the sprouting of the seeds can be inferred; from (the position of) the Jupiter, the formation of grains (stambakarita) can be inferred; and from the movements of the Venus, rainfall can be inferred.

Three are the clouds that continuously rain for seven days; eighty are they that pour minute drops; and sixty are they that appear with the sunshine--this is termed rainfall. Where rain, free from wind and unmingled with sunshine, falls so as to render three turns of ploughing possible, there the reaping of good harvest is certain.