IV. Centrally directed economic systems
1 Introduction:
Central direction as a mechanism to solve the economic problem was resorted to by the olden kings even in India. The political organisation was headed by the king i.e.a hereditary institution under the Hindu regime & later the Mougal regime in India.
There are some instances of central direction even in the earliest urban centers such as the low land alluvial drainages of Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia about 3000 B.C, the Lower Nile valley of Egypt, Indus valley (now in Pakistan), The yellow river basin in North China.etc.
We also find an authoritarian organization in medieval China. The colossal “great wall of China” was built by a despot directing the social effort towards its construction.
In each urban centre there developed an irrigation system, they had to organise defensive forces and set up a military system. There was a centralised control over large irrigation works and therefore wealth came to be used for public purpose.
Some sort of central direction existed in Quechras of Peru which was an Indian empire ruled by nobles called Incas, until it was conquered by Spain under Pizarro in 1531.
Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Akbar, Sher Shah, Todumal, Shivaji Maharaj etc. are all samples of the centrally directed economic system
Some examples of central direction is also found in Kdautilya’s “Arthashastra” which consists of 150 chapters or 6000 shlokas composed in the interested of the Maurya King.