Page:Indian Shipping, a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times.djvu/177

 on India in Rome was also for silk, muslin, and cotton, which were sold at fabulously high prices. In the reign of Aurelian, silk was worth fully its weight in gold. Tiberius Caesar had to pass a law forbidding transparent silk as an indecent dress. Mr. Vincent A. Smith has thus summarized the information regarding the Roman trade with Southern India: "Tamil land had the good fortune to possess three precious commodities not procurable elsewhere, namely pepper, pearls, and beryls. Pepper fetched an enormous price in the markets of Europe. . . . The pearl-fishery of the Southern Sea, which still is productive and valuable, had been worked for untold ages, and always attracted a crowd of foreign merchants. The mines of Padiyur in the Coimbatore district were almost the only source known to the ancient world from which good beryls could be obtained, and few gems were more esteemed by both Indians and Romans. The Tamil states maintained powerful navies, and were visited freely by ships from both east and west, which brought merchants of various places eager to buy the pearls, pepper, beryls, and other choice commodities of India, and to pay for them with the gold, silver, and art ware of Europe."

Numismatic evidences bring to light the fact that the Indian trade with Rome was most active