The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c26.s3: Economic Condition
The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c26.s3
- Language
- English
Economic Condition
c26.s3.1
During the medieval age our country was famous for her fabulous wealth. The story of our enormous riches tempted Mahmud of Ghazni and his plundering hordes to invade the prosperous capital of our kingdoms and sack our temples. One can easily believe from the contemporary accounts of the vast plunder acquired by Muhammad bin Qasim in Sindh and Multan and Mahmud of Ghazni in Hindustan proper—coined and uncoined money, precious stones of various kinds and a variety of other goods valued at crores of rupees—that the stories were not fairy tales and had foundation in fact.
c26.s3.2
That the early Turkish invaders did not completely drain away our wealth, much less uproot our sources of production, is clear from the enormous booty that the Sultans of Delhi gathered in their expeditions, both in northern and southern India and huge expenses incurred by them on their wars and the money lavished by them on their courts and households. And yet, there was left enough in the land to be carried away by Timur at the end of the 14th century from only one corner of our country, not in thousands but in hundreds of thousands. The economic prosperity of our country, during the Turko-Afghan period, is thus beyond question.
c26.s3.3
The main source of our wealth was agriculture. The natural fertility of the soil in most parts, copious rainfall and irrigation facilities provided since the early times and their systematical reinforcement by Firoz Tughluq, combined with the industry of our peasants led to the production of so much of corn that it not only supplied the need of the country but was also exported abroad. Rich crops, such as, cotton, sugar-cane, lintels, oilseeds, poppy, Indigo, etc., were produced on a large scale. Fruits of numerous variety were produced in many parts of the country. We have already seen in a previous chapter that a considerable portion of the revenues of Firoz Tughluq came from gardens. But, though agriculture was the occupation of the bulk of the people, there were many important industries in the rural as well as the urban areas. Centuries before the advent of the Turks, our country was industrially well organised. There were guilds and crafts in the villages and in towns which carried on widespread commerce. Inspite of the absence of State support, these industrial institutions survived the shocks of foreign invasions and internal revolutions. There were two kinds of industries—those that were under state patronage and those that were purely private. The Sultans had their own *karkhanas* or workshops in Delhi, which employed many thousands of weavers of silk and other stuffs. Every year thousands of yards of silk and cotton cloth were produced by the royal workshops for preparing robes of honour. There were other kinds of workshops, such as, those for gold and silver articles and embroidery, and so on. As for private industries, the most important among them were the textile industry, including the manufacture of cotton, woollen and silk cloth, dyeing industry, printing industry, calico printing industry, sugar industry, metal work, paper industry, stone and brick work and various other industries, such as inlay of stone work, enamelling etc. There were some minor industries, such as, shoe-making, manufacture of arms, manufacture of liquors, brass and other metal industries and clay industry. Textile industries were common to all the provinces of the country; but Bangal and Gujarat were particularly renowned for the manufacture and export of textile goods.
c26.s3.4
Although during the Turko-Afghan period the State did not adopt a comprehensive economic policy with the object of improving the material condition of the people, yet the volume of trade, both internal and external, carried on by our countrymen, was enormous. India had commercial relations with the outside world. She exported agricultural goods, textile manufactures, both cotton and silk, and some other things, such as, tutenag, opium, indigo, etc. Her chief imports were horses, mules and articles of luxury for the royal family and nobility. It is clear that the value of her exports was much greater than that of the imports and the balance of trade was always in her favour. That was why it was generally believed that "Merchants of all countries never ceased to carry pure gold into India, and to bring back in exchange commodities of herbs and gums." We had, during this period, commercial relations with China, the Malay Islands and other countries in the Pacific Ocean which were connected with us by sea-routes. Our trade with Bhutan, Tibet, Afghanistan, Persia and other countries in Central Asia was carried on through land-routes.
c26.s3.5
But our wealth was unevenly distributed. In fact, it was concentrated in the hands of a small minority. The Sultans and their nobility and the high official class were enormously wealthy and so also were the Hindu rajas and chiefs and top-ranking Hindu merchants and bankers. We have seen that the salaries of important civil and military officers in the Sultanate period were very high. The officials and nobles lived in big mansions, were attended by a large array of servants and rolled in wealth and luxury. The middle class, which consisted of the professional men and important clerks and merchants, was also fairly well-to-do. But the masses, who, of course, formed the bulk of the population, were poor and did not have enough to satisfy their needs. It has been shown in the last chapter that the tiller of the soil was left with about one-third of his produce. The incidence of taxation fell heavily on him; but, it seems, that in normal times he did not starve. His wants were few, in fact, fewer than he has in our day and things of everyday use were much cheaper. But, when there was famine, whether due to failure of rains or some other natural calamity or due to destruction of crops owing to military expeditions, common people died in hundreds and, sometimes, in thousands. Famines did occur during the period—for example, one in the time of Jalal-ud-din Firoz Khalji when hundreds of people drowned themselves into the Yamuna, and another in the Doab in the time of Muhammad bin Tughluq which, too, was very severe and caused a considerable loss of life.
c26.s3.6
Owing to the difficult means of communications, prices were not uniform in the various parts of the country. It should not, of course, be expected that they could be uniform throughout the period. In normal times things were very cheap; but, in times of famine and scarcity, prices of goods rose abnormally high. For example, during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq when a famine occurred grain was sold at sixteen to seventeen *jitals* a *seer*. Similarly, prices would go up during war. When Firoz Tughluq invaded Sindh for the second time, the price of grain there rose to eight to ten *jitals* per *seer*. During Ala-ud-din’s reign the prices of most of the articles of daily use were considered as normal. At that time wheat used to sell at seven and a half *jitals* per maund, barley four *jitals*, rice five *jitals*, pulses five *jitals*, white sugar one hundred *jitals* a maund, soft sugar sixty *jitals* a maund, oil-seeds three *jitals* a maund, mutton ten *jitals* a maund and ghee sixteen *jitals* a maund. The prices of various kinds of cloth were: muslin of Delhi cost seventeen *tankas* a piece, that of Aligarh six *tankas* and a fine blanket cost thirty-six *jitals*, while a coarse one six *jitals*. Prices were exceptionally low during the later years of the reign of Sikandar Lodi and throughout that of Ibrahim Lodi. During Ibrahim’s time one could purchase ten maunds of grain, five seers of oil and ten yards of coarse cloth for one *Bahloli*, a coin introduced by Bahlol Lodi and equivalent to one-sixth of a *jital* in value. Nowhere were the things of everyday use cheaper than Bangal which the Turks considered as a “hell crammed with good things.”
c26.s3.7
(In short, the general prosperity of the country is testified to by contemporary sources, both Indian and foreign.) Among the foreign travellers the names of Marco Polo, who visited southern India between 1288 and 1293, Ibn Battuta, who travelled in most parts of our country between 1334 and 1342, and Mahuan, (a Chinese, who visited Bangal in 1406), are of special interest, as all of them have left an account of the country which shows that/both industrially and economically India was prosperous and that there was a “great abundance of all the necessaries of life.”,