Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/260

210 are unable to pay, while Gautama details the taxes thus:–

"Cultivators pay to the king a tax amounting to one-tenth, one-eighth, or one-sixth (of the produce).

"Some declare that the tax on cattle and gold amounts to one-fiftieth (of the stock).

"In the case of merchandise one-twentieth (must be paid by the seller) as duty.

"Of roots, fruits, flowers, medicinal herbs, honey, meat, grass, and fire-wood, one-sixtieth.

"Each artisan shall monthly do one day's work (for the king).

"Hereby the taxes payable by those who support themselves by personal labour have been explained.

"And those payable by owners of ships and carts.

"He must feed these persons while they work for him."

Megasthenes gives us a valuable account of the manner in which the work of administration was actually carried on, and the following passages from McCrindle's translation will be read with interest:–

"Those who have charge of the city are divided into six bodies of five each. The members of the first look after everything relating to the industrial arts. Those of the second attend to the entertainment of foreigners. To these they assign lodgings, and they keep watch over their modes of life by means of those persons whom they give to them for assistants. They escort them on the way when they leave the country, or in the event of their dying, forward their property