History of the Khaljis, A.D. 1290–1320 c17.s1.18

c17.s1.18

To put a stop to black-marketeering, restriction were imposed on the sale and purchase of high class fabrics. Silks were sold at high prices outside Delhi and there was danger of people's buying costly stuffs in the capital at controlled rates and selling them at prices four or five times higher outside. Thus the evil of profiteering at the cost of the state loomed large. Some cases of profiteering on the part of public men were brought to the notice of the sultan, who was not slow to issue orders to counteract it. (Accordingly nobody was allowed to buy costly stuffs as *tazbīb* and *Tabrezi*, Delhi foiselle silks (*khazz*), *kamkhob*, *shashtari*, *harīrī*, Chinese, *Bhīram* and Devagiri silks, cloths embroidered with gold threads²⁸ and other similar articles without first obtaining a permit from the Dīvān-i-Riyāsat. The Dīvān issued permits to Maliks and Amirs and other well-known persons with whose credentials he was satisfied. The purchaser had to give a written receipt in acknowledgement of the article bought by him and in this way any possibility of profiteering in the black market was eliminated.)