The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c10.9

c10.9

In medieval times India was well advanced in manufacture, trade and commerce. Indian textiles and other manufactured goods had a market throughout the East and the West. India exported lot of goods and Indian ports served as clearing stations of trade between the East and the West. In industry and manufacture, whether it was of cloth, carpet or leather, or it was metal, ivory or gold, India held the supreme position. There were excellent ship-building and repairing yards (even for European ships) in India.¹² Mahuan, an interpreter attached to the Chinese envoy Chang Ho who visited Bengal in 1406, writes that The rich build ships in which they carry on commerce with foreign nations.¹³ Right from the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries, indeed from ancient times, manufacturing centres of all kinds of wares were spread all over the country.¹⁴ Indias position in the field of manufacture, industry and commerce, if not in science and technology, remained important throughout the medieval period.