History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c17.14

c17.14

The reign of 'Alāóddin was full of bloody warfare, a state which tended to increase the prices of commodities. Moreover, war involves dislocation of traffic, and the almost primitive means of transport of the 13th and 14th centuries must have been surely affected by the then conditions. A glaring instance of it is to be found during the invasion of Targhī (1303 A.D.) when the Mughal invader stopped all caravans from entering Delhi by capturing the roads around it as well as the fords of Jumna. Such a situation would have created intense scarcity of food grain in the capital and would have raised the prices of things exorbitantly. 'Alāūddin tried to overcome the difficulties of transport and of high prices by accumulating food stuffs in the capital on the one hand, and by fixing their prices on the other. For this, the sultan undertook certain measures which are interesting to study as they show that as far back as the 14th century the principles of enhancement of taxes, of price control, and of rationing during a state of war, were as much comprehensible as they are to-day.