Trade and commerce flourished under the Cholas. Trade was carried on with West Asia and China and South-east Asia. Trade with China reached unprecedented volume during these centuries. Foreign trade provided an additional incentive to an already developing local market. There existed a brisk internal trade in several articles carried on by the organized mercantile corporations in various parts of the country. The metal industries and the jewelry art had reached a high degree of excellence. The manufacture of sea salt was carried on under government supervision and control. Trade was carried on by merchants organized in guilds. The guilds described sometimes by the terms nanadesis were a powerful autonomous corporation of merchants which visited different countries in the course of their trade. They had their own mercenary army for the protection of their merchandise. There were also local organizations of merchants called "nagaram" in big centers of trade like Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram. Commercial Town Nagaram Nagaram were commercial towns inhabited by Merchants such as Chettis (general merchants), Sankarappadiyars (oil merchant) and artisans like Saliyars (weaver), and Tattars (goldsmiths). During the Chola period most of Nagaram were identified by the suffix ‚¬Ëœpuram‚¬„¢ (a fortified town), which was usually attached to the king‚¬„¢s name as Kulottunga-cholapuram, Rajendra-sivapuram and Mummudi-cholapuram. Nagaram is a commercial town involved in a more market-oriented exchange of goods and services in the Chola domain. It also involved in collection of taxes on commercial transactions and established the rules and regulations for its community of exchange, dominating trade within the nadu unit of the Chola polity. The Nagaram was a body of merchants which actively participated in the trade and commerce of medieval south India. It was essentially an administrative unit of the merchant community specializing in the field of commerce and industry especially in big and small towns. The members of the Nagaram were generally known by several names such as Nagarattar, Nagara-karanattar and Nagara Madhyasta. They had a large measure of control over trade settlements, within the locality of the area to which they belong. It was an important commercial centre as well as a religious centre, attracted and nourished several religious beliefs, both Brahmanical and heretical.