358 economy: Asia and the Pacific took the form of exports; grain was traded to the Near East in exchange for consumer goods such as cookware as well as for luxury items such as decorative sculpture Harappan society seems to have been structured around an upper class and a lower class based on ownership of land It may have had kings, but no palaces or other indications of royalty have been found Some areas of the Harappans’ cities and towns had large houses with big walls and spacious interiors, while other areas crowded together small houses along narrow streets Based on differences in housing, some historians have theorized that the economy had a big division between rich and poor, with a small elite group controlling the wealth generated by the economy Some also suggest that the division was so great that the lower class was made up of slaves of the upper class Others speculate that the differences between social classes may have arisen from a difference between owners of large estates and owners of small farms, or they may have resulted from hereditary social status, with the upper class being nobility and the lower class peasants In any case, the Harappans plainly had an economy advanced enough to have the means to pay people to care for the cities Sewers, streets, walls, fortifications, and granaries were well maintained until about 1800 b.c.e., when the economy of the Harappan culture seems to have begun a decline, perhaps caused by natural disasters, invading nomads, or both The Harappans fueled an extensive trading empire and were well known to the Sumerians of the Near East, who called them Meluhha Ships from the Harappans sailed to Dilmun, modern Bahrain, where they traded for goods made in the Near East During the reign of Sumer’s Sargon I (r 2334–2279 b.c.e.) Harappan ships routinely sailed up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to dock at major cities THE VAISHYAS AND SUDRAS The next city-building culture did not arise in India until the 900s b.c.e., when the nomadic Vedic people began settling, though they did not become a fully agricultural society until about 500 b.c.e By 1500 b.c.e some of the nomadic peoples of central and northern Asia had developed the practice of waiting until after harvest time and then raiding towns and villages to steal food and other valuables This behavior was a constant factor in weakening the ancient Asian economies of India, China, and Korea By 500 b.c.e India was divided into numerous small kingdoms Complex economies developed in northern India, giving rise to a cash economy, meaning an economy based not on barter but on the use of money to make purchases The Vedic culture that dominated northern India had brought with it a system of social classes that became the castes of India Under this system the third-highest caste was the Vaishya, who were in charge of money lending, agriculture, and trade They paid higher taxes than the other castes because one of their duties was to create wealth to give to the higher castes—the Brahmans, or priests, and the Kshatriyas, or warriors and rulers The Vaishyas resented being third-class people and having to pay higher taxes than everyone else, so during the Maurya Dynasty many of them adopted Buddhism, which advocated social equality The fourth caste was the Sudra, a group that included craft speople The men were blacksmiths, carpenters, and potters, while the women were basket makers and weavers of textiles Perhaps either gender could have made garlands, which were important ornaments Farmers were of the Vaishya caste, and they led difficult lives, burdened by high taxes and usually allowed to work only small plots of land The big estates tended to be owned by kings and temples, and they were worked by Vaishyas, who were little more than slaves Their main crop was rice, but they also cultivated wheat, barley, and cotton mostly in northern India, and sugarcane, peas, and beans mostly in southern India They raised sheep, cattle, and buffalo Recognizing the importance of keeping their agricultural economies strong, Indian governments usually gave farmers seeds when the farmers needed them, and they lent farmers oxen, tools, and even money Large towns had public markets where farmers could sell their produce and where shops sold the products of the Sudras and goods imported by the Vaishyas Merchants sold oil for lamps, perfumes, and spices Some owned taverns, where government agents would spy on the patrons to see who was spending lavishly and therefore might not have paid all his taxes The Mauryan government developed a bureaucracy devoted to keeping track of people and their wealth People paid for goods with gold and silver coins Each coin was marked with a code that identified where it had been minted, which allowed governments to identify who might be minting underweight coins, which by law were supposed contain a certain weight of gold, silver, or copper Underweight coins could cause inflation, because sellers would figure out that certain coins were underweight and would therefore demand more of them for their goods A high number of underweight coins could cause people to lose faith in the coins, perhaps turning to bartering for their goods This could lead to a collapse of the cash economy, which in turn would cause many businesses to go bankrupt Governments also kept track of the movements of merchants and how they were treated Villages, towns, and cities were expected to protect foreign merchants and sometimes were required to reimburse a merchant for the value of his goods if he was robbed by bandits while in their territories INDIAN FOREIGN TRADE During the Maurya Dynasty, India opened up extensive foreign trade routes The Mauryans traded with people from the east coast of Africa, the Near East, Greece, Rome, and China Alexander the Great’s invasion of northwestern India in 326 b.c.e made wide-ranging contacts with Western cultures Beginning with the reign of Augustus Caesar in Rome (27 b.c.e.–14 c.e.) Indian kingdoms sent ambassadors to the Roman court, seeking to expand and protect trade relations