The much longer period of mankind’s past is customarily called ‘prehistory’, as if before writing began, there could be no ‘history’. It is, however, true that during what we may call ‘deep past’, there were features in the organisation of human societies that were different from what was to be found when towns arose and civilisations came to be established. This article examines how in the realm of exchange and what goes today by the name of commerce, the early societies were different from their later successors. Taking India, especially South India as our field, we examine how systems of exchange existed in early societies without the development of a ‘business’ class.
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