Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c6.s3.t2.1

c6.s3.t2.1

After enumerating some facts about the standard of earnings, it would be worth while to consider some facts about the prices of necessities. We have numerous references to prices of commodities in the accounts of contemporary chroniclers and other writers who speak of prices in times of famine and scarcity as well as those of the periods of over-production and therefore of exceptional cheapness. We will try to form some idea of normal prices by a comparison of rates from the reigns of a few monarchs which are not marked by any violent dislocation of economic life. However, one has to guard against emphasising the accuracy of the results so obtained or the inferences based on them. The means of communication and transport had a great influence on the variation of prices between years of good and bad harvests. The fact that a certain district was physically isolated and found no outlet for its surplus produce in times of plenty or facilities for supply in times of scarcity and famine, produced a standard of prices which were either much lower (in the case of abundance of harvests) or much higher (in scarcity and famine) than can be reached under modern conditions. There is a second consideration which is still more important. When prices are expressed, as is the Indian custom, in terms of the number of the seers sold for a Tanka or Jital, it should not be forgotten that while money prices vary inversely with quantity prices, the percentage of the rise or fall of prices according to the two methods of notation is quite different. ‘Thus’ as the *Imperial Gazetteer of India* (Vol. III, 457) explains ‘if the number of seers obtainable for a rupee (otherwise, the Tanka) is halved, *i.e.*, decreased by 50 per cent., the money price is doubled, *i.e.* rises 100 per cent.; but if the quantity price becomes 50 per cent. more, that is cheaper, the corresponding money price is 33 per cent. lower’. After these considerations, we may further add that our results only answer for Delhi with any confidence and for a small adjoining area. But it is worth while considering the question even within these limitations.