Business in India's history

Business covers industry, trade and commerce: it begins with producing goods and ends when they are consumed. India has a very long history of it.

In ancient times India traded both by land, along routes like the famous Silk Route, and by sea. India usually exported more than it imported, which is a favourable balance of trade, and grew rich from it.

Trade over long distances needed a safe way to move money, because carrying cash on long journeys risked robbery. India developed its own indigenous banking system. A hundi (the word comes from "to collect") was a written order to pay money, which could be passed from person to person, so money could move without carrying cash. In the south, similar instruments called chitties were used.

Great trading centres included Pataliputra, Taxila, Ujjain, Kanchi, Tamralipti and Surat, whose hundis were famous and trusted far beyond India. Foreign travellers called India 'Swaran Bhoomi', the golden land.

As trade grew, so did its helpers: money and banking, transport and warehouses. In modern times, India opened up its economy (liberalisation) in 1991, and programmes like Make in India, Skill India and Digital India aim to help business grow again.