Some of the Delhi sultans also took care to build irrigation facilities to promote agriculture. Firuz Tughluq in particular was active in this; he built a vast network of canals in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which drew water from several rivers—Yamuna, Sutlej, Ghaggar and so on—and distributed it for irrigation. This canal system is considered to be the largest such network ever built in India in pre-modern times. Provincial governors also played a notable role in expanding irrigation facilities in their territory. Besides these massive canal networks built by the state, several villages also built local canals to feed their fields.
A great variety of cereals, fruits, nuts, kitchen vegetables and spices were cultivated in medieval India. In addition to these native agricultural products, India in medieval times also took to the cultivation of tobacco, maize and potatoes, produce of the Americas brought into India by the Portuguese, and these in time became major crops.
Cereals were usually harvested twice a year in India: an autumn harvest (kharif) and a spring harvest (rabi). ‘When they have reaped the autumn harvest, they sow spring grains in the same soil in which autumn grains had been sown, for their country is excellent and the soil is fertile,’ reports Battuta. ‘As for rice, they sow it three times a year.’ Most of the agricultural produce in medieval India were consumed locally, in the villages that produced them, but there was also some trade across the subcontinent in them, particularly in cereals, carried by Banjaras, wandering grain traders.
In early medieval India farming was almost entirely in the hands of Hindus. Most of the farm holdings at this time were small, and were cultivated by their owners themselves. There were however also a few large estates owned by landlords, who cultivated them by hiring farm labourers. Hindu temples also played a major role in agriculture—they owned extensive tracts of land, which they usually rented out to tenants, but sometimes they themselves cultivated them by employing labourers. Temples also financed agriculture by advancing loans to farmers on the security of their lands. The state too played a notable role in promoting agriculture, inducing farmers to expand cultivation by granting them tax remissions or concessions, and by encouraging them to plant more valuable crops—sugarcane, oil-seeds, spices and poppies—instead of cereals.
Another development of economic importance in medieval India was the mass migration of people from one region to another. A major instance of this was the migration of a large number of farmers from the dry areas of Karnataka to the fertile lower Kavery valley. There was also a notable movement of Telugus into the Tamil country at this time, so that Telugu farmers and merchants came to constitute significant elements in the population of several districts in Tamil Nadu.
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT economic development of the early medieval period in India was the gradual revival of urban prosperity, and the related expansion of industrial production and trade. Some of the traditional industrial products of India, such as high quality textiles, underwent notable changes at this time, to reflect the Turkish taste, as Turks had become the major consumers of these products. Even the very mode of textile production changed at this time, as Indians now, in the thirteenth century, took to the use of the spinning wheel under Turkish influence, replacing the traditional the hand spindle. This technology became widespread in India over the next century, and it greatly speeded up textile production. Indians also took to the use of cotton-carder’s bow around this time. Possibly the weaver’s loom also underwent a modification in the medieval period, but information about this is scanty. Bengal was the main textile manufacturing region of India at this time, with Gujarat close behind it.
Cloth-weaving was the most widespread industrial activity in medieval India, but there were also several other crafts flourishing in India at this time. Metal crafts, for instance, boomed during this period, manufacturing war materials like swords and guns, as well as several household items. Indians also took to the manufacture of paper now, around the thirteenth century.
A notable economic development in India in the middle ages was the growing prominence of state run manufacturing units, producing a variety of luxury goods. This happened in nearly all the kingdoms of the period, but most prominently in Delhi. What the royal factories produced were not, however, for sale in the market, but for the consumption of the vast royal establishments, and for the king and his family members to give away as presents.
‘The sultan has a factory, in which 400 silk weavers are employed,’ notes Shahab-ud-din. ‘And there they make stuffs of all kinds, for the dresses of persons attached to the court, for robes of honour and presents, in addition to the stuffs which are brought every year from China, Iraq and Alexandria. Every year the sultan distributes 200,000 complete dresses; 100,000 in spring and 100,000 in autumn. The spring dresses consist principally of the goods manufactured in Alexandria. Those of the autumn are almost exclusively of silk manufactured in Delhi or imported from China or Iraq … The sultan keeps in his service 500 manufacturers of golden tissues, who weave the gold brocades worn by the wives of the sultan, and those given away as presents to the amirs and their wives.’
Indian craftsmen enjoyed a high reputation in the medieval world for their skills. ‘I tell you that they are the greatest and the most expert workmen … in all the world,’ states Varthema. But the crafts environment in India also had a negative aspect to it, in that the top Indian craftsmen were usually very secretive about their skills, passing them on to their sons or favourite disciples late in their lives, often near the time of their death. Sometimes they failed to do this, so that their unique skills died with them.
DOMESTIC TRADE IN India had declined sharply in the post-Gupta period, due to the ruralisation of Indian society and economy. Around that time India’s foreign trade too petered out, because of the collapse of the Roman Empire and the slide of Europe into the Dark Ages. But now, with the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, internal trade gradually revived, stimulated by the insatiable demand for luxury goods by the sultans and nobles. India’s foreign trade also revived at this time, as the demand for Indian goods rose in Europe as it emerged out of the Dark Ages. These economic developments in India were noted by several contemporary foreign visitors—Battuta, for instance, found cities flourishing in the upper Gangetic valley, Gujarat, Bengal, the Deccan, Vijayanagar and Kerala. Barbosa and Paes also speak of the lively commercial scene in India at this time. Gold coins, which were rarely issued in India after the collapse of the Gupta Empire, now once again began to appear, indicating the revival of Indian economy.
Towns now rose to prominence again, with flourishing markets, where trade fairs were held periodically. Also, the political integration of a large part of the subcontinent under the Delhi sultans led to the economic integration of the subcontinent, as well as to the expansion of trade and to the close commercial interlinking of villages and towns. New towns now began to sprout all over the land. And alongside the existing major towns there appeared flourishing suburbs, indicating the spread of prosperity and the increased feeling of security among the people. The travel of people and the transport of goods across the land were now safer than in the previous period, though they were still quite hazardous. Caravanserais now appeared along major trade routes, and this also greatly facilitated regional and inter-regional trade.
There was however no notable change in the pattern of India’s trade, or in its merchandise, from what they had been for many centuries previously. Nor was India’s economic growth vigorous enough to bring about any civilizational change in India, or to markedly improve the standard of life of the common people. It is significant that there is no evidence at this time of the existence of trade guilds, which had played a crucial role in Indian economy in the classical age.
THE PROMINENT TRADING communities of medieval India were Banias of Gujarat, Multanis of Punjab, Marwaris of Rajasthan, and Chettis of peninsular India. Apart from these major trading communities, there were also several other Hindu communities engaged in trade in medieval times. Muslims too
played an important role in trade at this time, in local as well as foreign trade. Banjaras—a nomadic people divided into several tribes and based in different parts of the subcontinent, but probably originally from Rajasthan—also played a prominent role in Indian economy at this time, as itinerant grain traders.
Brahmins too, according to Marco Polo, played a key role in trade at this time, as agents of foreign traders, and were highly respected for their integrity. Nuniz also speaks highly of Brahmin traders, and notes that they ‘are honest men, given to trade, very acute and of much talent, very good at accounts, lean men and well-formed, but little fit for hard work.’
Did Brahmins at this time really play the prominent role in trade that is attributed to them by Polo and Nuniz? That is doubtful. It is quite probable that these chroniclers were mistaking Jains for Brahmins, for Brahmins were not known to have been active in trade in medieval India, except along the northern Karnataka coast, where the Konkani-speaking Saraswat Brahmins were prominent regional traders. Elsewhere in India too Brahmins played a major role in trade, but as financiers of traders, not as traders themselves.
In medieval India, as in classical India, trade in particular commodities was handled by particular communities, as an extension of the occupation specialisation of castes. Similarly, financing business was also usually a community specialisation. Two of the most prominent financier communities of medieval India were Shahs and Multanis, of whom the latter also directly participated in trade. Hindu temples, like Buddhist monasteries in earlier times, also played a major role in the economy and social life of medieval India. ‘The temple,’ as Thapar notes, ‘was the bank, the landowner, the employer of innumerable artisans and servants, the school, the discussion centre, the administrative centre for the village, and the place for major entertainments in the form of festivals.’ Muslims had virtually no role in financial services, as Islamic law condemned lending money on interest as a sin.
As for business ethics, it varied from community to community, and region to region. In Gujarat traders were invariably straightforward in their dealings, and charged only the right price for what they sold. On the other hand, traders in Lahore, whose customers were mostly itinerant foreigners, usually quoted inflated prices, and entered into a battle of wits in bargaining with their customers before agreeing on the price.
Traders in major towns in India at this time were generally very wealthy and lived in luxurious mansions. Battuta, for instance, mentions the case of one Mithqal—quite probably an Arab trader—in Kozhikode in north Kerala, who possessed ‘great riches and many ships for trading with India, China, Yemen and Fars (Iran).’
ISLAM DISAPPROVED ITS votaries from taking to money lending business, but it had no serious objection to Muslims borrowing money on interest. In fact, the Muslim aristocracy in India were heavy, reckless borrowers of money, often at exorbitant interest rates. Notes Barani: ‘The Multanis and Shahs of Delhi, who have acquired abundant wealth, have derived it from the resources of the old nobles of Delhi.’ The nobles took huge loans from these moneylenders, and repaid them by assigning to them shares in the revenue of their fiefs. Being deep in debt was for these nobles even something to be proud of, as a demonstration of their extravagant and carefree lifestyle.
Muslim travellers, traders and migrants were also heavy borrowers, and they were served by Hindu moneylenders, particularly in the north-western frontier towns of India. ‘The merchants of Sind and India began to furnish each newcomer with thousands of dinars as a loan, and to supply him with whatever he might desire, to offer as gift or for his own use, such as riding animals, camels, and goods,’ reports Battuta. ‘They place both their money and their persons at his service, and stand before him like attendants. When he reaches the sultan, he receives a magnificent gift from him and pays off his debt to them.’
The common people were also heavy borrowers in medieval times, but they often defaulted in their repayments, so the relationship between the lender and the borrower was seldom cordial in India, and sometimes the lender had to take coercive measures to recover his money. Marco Polo describes a curious South Indian practice of a creditor drawing a circle around his defaulting debtor, for the custom of the region required that ‘the latter should not pass out of this circle until he had satisfied the claim, or given security for its discharge.’
Apart from financiers, brokers (dallals) also played a key role in trade deals, particularly as intermediaries in the transactions between Indians of different regions, or between Indians and foreigners, because the cultural and language differences between such persons made direct negotiations between them virtually impossible. This, the prominent role played by brokers in trade, was a relatively new development in India in medieval times, and was indicative of the expansion of inter-regional and foreign trade in India at this time. Brokers also served as clearing agents, transporters, and stockers of trade goods.
Trade negotiations in the market at this time were carried out in a peculiarly secretive manner in some Indian towns. ‘They always sell by the hands of the … broker,’ notes Varthema. ‘And when the purchaser and the seller wish to make an agreement, they all stand in a circle, and the broker takes a cloth and holds it there openly with one hand, and with the other hand he takes the right hand of the seller, that is, the two fingers next to the thumb, and then he covers with the said cloth his hand and that of the seller, and touching each other with these two fingers, they count from one ducat up to one hundred thousand secretly, without saying “I will have 60” or “so much.” But by merely touching the joints of the fingers they understand the price and say “Yes” or “No”. And broker answers “No” or “Yes”. And when the broker has understood the will of the seller, he goes to the buyer with the said cloth, and takes his hand in the manner above mentioned, and by the said touching he tells him he wants so much. The buyer takes the finger of the broker, and by the said touches says to him: “I will give him so much.” And in this manner they fix the price.’
POLITICAL CONSOLIDATION IN India in early medieval times—in North India under the Delhi Sultanate, and in the peninsula under the Bahmani Sultanate and Vijayanagar—facilitated the economic recovery of India from the morass into which it had sunk in the late classical period. Though Mahmud Ghazni’s pillaging raids in the early eleventh century had devastated the already moribund Indian economy, now, two centuries later, with the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, the economy stabilised and began to expand. There were still incessant wars in many regions of the subcontinent at this time, but conditions were on the whole better than what they had been in the previous several centuries. There was now relative political stability in the subcontinent, and that facilitated the expansion of trade. Moreover, trade at this time was greatly stimulated by the patronage it received from the fabulously affluent and extravagant Muslim ruling class. And kings generally sought to promote trade by granting tax concessions to traders and by conferring on them various privileges, for the prosperity that traders brought to kingdoms strengthened the economic base of royal power.
The primary concern of the medieval Indian kings in their tax policies, as in everything else, was to consolidate and enhance their own power and resources; ruling for the benefit of the people was more a pretence than a practice with nearly all of them. But even from the narrow point of view of self-interest, it was very much in the interest of kings to nourish trade and be facilitative towards traders, especially towards foreign traders, for kings were dependent on those traders to provide them with the luxuries essential for their lifestyle, and also, more importantly, to supply them with the horses their armies needed. Besides, traders often operated across kingdoms, and if a king overtaxed or oppressed them, they could easily move their business elsewhere.
In every respect it was very much in the interest of kings to maintain good relationship with traders. And traders on their part usually avoided getting embroiled in political tussles, for that could jeopardise their business interests. But
major traders, because of their great wealth, and the armed escorts they maintained, were sometimes tempted to enter into the perilous arena of politics. Thus the Tibi family, trade tycoons in peninsular India in the late thirteenth century, once played the role of kingmakers in the Pandya kingdom, in a tussle between two brothers for the throne. Similarly, according to Battuta, there was once, on the west coast south of Goa, a very rich trader named Jamal-ud-din, who maintained an army of 6,000 and a fleet of over fifty ships, styled himself ‘sultan’, and exercised considerable political power for a while in the late fifteenth century.
COMMERCIAL TAX PRACTICES and rates in India varied considerably from kingdom to kingdom, even from ruler to ruler in a kingdom. This was inevitable, given the political, economic and social diversity of India. The most rigorous of the trade control measures enforced by any medieval Indian king were those of Ala-ud-din Khalji, who sought to firmly control all economic activities in his empire, particularly in Delhi, by regulating both the movement of goods as well as their prices. The major trade objective of the sultan was to stabilise the price of grains, the essential food of Indians of all classes, and in this he was entirely successful. He achieved this by fixing and enforcing the price of grains, and by carefully balancing supply and demand, releasing into the market grains from the royal stores during times of scarcity. ‘The unvarying price of grain in the markets was looked upon as one of the wonders of the age,’ comments Barani.
The Age of Wrath: A History of the Delhi Sultanate Page 50