INDIAN SHIPPING
The kind and degree of the maritime activity of the period will be evident from the various kinds of port-taxes that were levied. Thus villages on sea-shores or on the banks of rivers and lakes had to pay regularly a fixed amount of tax.[1] Fishermen had to yield one-sixth of their haul as fees for fishing license.[2] Merchants also had to pay the customary tax levied in port towns.[3] Passengers arriving on board the State or the king's ship had to pay the fixed and requisite amount of sailing fees.[4] State boats were also let out to those who wanted to use them for pearl-fishery or for fishing for conch shells, and they had to pay the required amount of hire[5]; but they were also free to use their own boats for the purpose.[6] Besides these taxes payable to the Port Commissioner, there were the various sorts of ferry fees, which are also very interesting and equally indicative of a brisk trade and a throbbing commercial life. A man with a minor quadruped carrying some load had to pay a ferry
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