56 SOCIAL SCIENTIST are the brass and bell metal smiths (in Assam) working under the co-operatives and/or Mahajans for wages and of the latter are the traditional oil pressing units, gold/silver smiths and even small rice and flour mills in the rural areas catering to the needs of the customers who supply the raw materials for the return of the manufactured product. The former is putting out system pure and simple and the artisans inspite of having the manufacturing tools and equipments are dependent on the middlemen for their livelihood on contracted wages. It may also be surmised from the elaborate rules of Kautilya for wages, wastages of materials and fines for not working to the specifications that the craftsmen in those days working under state officials, trader middlemen or the village community had little independence. The foreign intruders, particularly the British, while laying the 'material foundations of Western society in Asia' as Marx had put it (July 22, 1853), had gradually transformed the traditional economic system and thereby played the role of 'unconscious tools of history' for development of capitalist relations of production in India. REFERENCES Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, Macmillan 6c Co. London, 1956. D.D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India, Vikas Publishing House, Delhi, 1981. D.R. Gadgil, The Industrial Evolution of India in Recent Times, Oxford University Press 1985. Dharma Kumar et al (ed.), The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol. I, Orient Longman, 1984. Karl Marx, Capital (Vol. I), Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1977 "The Future Results of the British Rule in India," in the First Indian War of Independence, Foreign Language Publishing House, Moscow, 2nd Imp. Kalipada Tarkacharyya et al (ed.) Manu Samhita (with Bangalee Commentaries), Vaidic Mahavidyalaya, Calcutta, (1371 B. Era) Maheswar Neog (ed.), Guru Charit Katha (biographies of Sankardeva and other Vaishnava Saints) Gauhati University, 1987. Paul Mantaux, The Industrial Evolution in the Eighteenth Century, Jonathan Cape, London, 1948. Prabin Baishya, Small and Cottage Industries: A Study in Assam, Manas Publications, Delhi, 1989. "The Feudal System in Medieval Assam" (600-1200 A.D.) in J.B. Bhattacharjee (ed.) Proceedings of the North East India History ^Association, llth Session, Shillong, 1990. R.C. Dutt, The Economic History of India (Vol. I), Publications Division, Govt. of India, Delhi, 1976. R.K. Devasarma et al (ed.), Kautilyar Arthasastra (with Assamese Commentaries) Asom Prakasan Parishad, Guwahati, 1977. W.H. Moreland, From Akbar to Aurangzeb: A Study in Indian Economic History, Low Price Publications, Delhi, 1990. W. Arther Lewis, The Theory of Economic Growth, Alien Sc Unwin, ELBS, 1963.