Epigraphic evidence from south India shows the wide range of commodities, foodgrains, vegetables, fruit, butter, salt, pepper, cotton, thread, fabrics, and metalware, offered for sale in wholesale markets. A major feature of the inter-local trade was the predominantly one-way flow of commodities from the villages to towns, a corollary of rural self-sufficiency. Different types of producers' goods featured prominently in the inter-local exchange of commodities. Some towns developed as markets for particular products procured through the inter-regional or even overseas trade. The coast of Coromandel, dealing both in its own produce and imported luxuries, had a brisk trade with the west coast and Gujarat both along the coast and across the Deccan. The trade in foodstuffs included butter and oil. As the cost of water transport was relatively low, a substantial part of the inter-regional trade in cheap bulk goods like foodgrains, salt and saltpetre was carried along the coast or the inland waterways.