Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c6.s2.t1.1

c6.s2.t1.1

There is ample evidence to show that many industries of considerable importance were developed in Hindustan during this period, the more important of them being textiles, metal-work, stone-work, sugar, indigo and paper. A portion of the luxuries for the upper classes was supplied from outside. There were no factories or large-scale industrial enterprises in the modern sense of the term. Usually, the producers of a commodity in small towns arranged with dealers of those goods in a big city to supply them with finished goods for distribution inland or for export outside. Sometimes the producers also disposed of their stock at the periodical fairs. The large scale exporters of goods, usually living in coastal towns also arranged directly with the manufacturers or through their agents, for the purchase and supply of finished goods. In some places enterprising business men engaged a number of craftsmen to manufacture articles under their own supervision. Of such organizations or factories, the best equipped and most efficiently organized were those of the Sultans of Delhi, or, at a later date, of the various minor rulers in the provinces also. These factories were known as *Karkhanas* or work-shops and have been referred to earlier. The royal factories at Delhi sometimes employed as many as 4,000 weavers of silk alone besides manufacturers of other kinds of goods for the royal supply.