TRADE AND COMMERCE OF DELHI SULTANATE

BY:- SWATI SINHA

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

PATNA WOMEN’S COLLEGE

In the Delhi Sultanate three interrelated developments occurred: a considerable increase in the size
and possibly in the number of towns, a marked rise in craft production, and a corresponding
expansion in commerce. During this period, political stability and enhanced production gave a fillip
to trading activities. The volume of trade increased manifold. With the increase in commercial
activities, a number of specialized groups involved in trade also grew. At the same time, some basic
commercial practices were also established. In the whole commercial process, certain specialized
groups of merchants, brokers and sarrafs played their role at various levels. Large-scale trading
operation strengthened some of the existing practices and institutions and gave rise to new ones.
Systems of banking, bills of exchange and lending of money were important ones. Trading
partnership and insurance were also in vogue.

There emerged some considerably big flourishing towns as well as numerous townships during the
13th-14th centuries. These towns naturally needed to be fed and supplied raw material for craft
production. Both these factors were conducive for the development of inland trade.

Inland trade

The inland trade developed at two levels: (a) the short distance village-town trade in commodities of
bulk, and (b) long distance inter-town trade in high value goods.

The village-town trade, was a natural consequence of the emergence of towns and realization of
land revenue in cash. The urban centres were dependent for supply of food grains and raw material
for manufactures from the surrounding villages whereas the villages had to sell the agricultural
products to receive cash for meeting the land revenue demand. The peculiar nature of this trade was
the one-way flow of commodities. While the towns received grains and raw material from the
villages in the vicinity, they had no need to send their products in exchange to the villages which
were by and large self-sufficient. This one-way trade was owing to the land revenue demand
imposed upon villages which naturally led to a continuous drain on rural sector and made the towns
dependent on villages. The turnover of this trade was high in terms of volume but was low in terms
of value. The commodities were food grains, that is wheat, rice, gram, sugarcane, etc. and raw
material like cotton for urban manufactures.

The inter-town trade was mainly in luxury articles and was thus a high value trade. The
manufactures of one town were taken to another. For example: Barani reports that Delhi, the capital
itself, received distilled wines from Kol (Aligarh) and Meerut, muslin (fine cloth) from Devagiri and
striped cloth from Lakhnauti (Bengal), while, according to Ibn Battuta, ordinary cloth came from
Awadh and betel-leaf from Malwa (twenty-four days’ journey from Delhi). Candy sugar was supplied
to Multan from Delhi and Lahore and ghi from Sirsa (in Haryana). The longer distance inter-town
trade also carried goods coming from other countries from entry-point towns to other urban centres
as well as the export goods to exit points. Multan was perhaps the great entrepot for overland
foreign trade and served as a centre of re-export, while Gujarat port towns such as Broach and
Cambay were exchange centres for overseas trade.
Foreign Trade:

Overland and overseas trade were in a flourishing state.

Seaborne Trade

The Khalji annexation of Gujarat enlarged trade relations between the Delhi Sultanate and the
Persian Gulf and the Red Sea Gujarat was connected with the Persian Gulf as well as the Red Sea.
Hormuz and Basra were the chief ports for the ships passing through the Persian Gulf, while the
ports of Aden, Mocha and Jedda along the Red Sea were important for Gujarat. Through these ports,
commodities moved on to Damascus and Aleppo, on the one hand, and Alexandria on the other.
Aleppo and Alexandria opened the Mediterranean Sea with linkages to Europe. Merchandise of
Gujarat were also carried towards the East - the port of Malacca situated at the Malacca straits and
Bantam and Achin in the Indonesian archipelago. A European traveller Tome Pires, who came to
India in the first decade of the 16th century, comments on the trade of Cambay as follows:
"Cambay chiefly stretches out two arms: with her right arm she reaches out towards Aden, with
the other towards Malacca.. . ." Pires further says: "Malacca cannot live without Cambay, nor
Cambay without Malacca, if they are to be very rich and very prosperous. If Cambay were cut-off
from trading with Malacca, it could not live, for it would have no outlet for its merchandise." The
main export from Gujarat to Malacca was the coloured cloths manufactured in Cambay and other
Gujarat towns. These cloths were in demand in these places. In exchange, the Gujarati merchants
came back with spices grown there. This pattern of "spices for coloured cloths" continued even after
the Portuguese advent in the Asian waters. Varthema, an Italian traveller, who came to India
during the first decade of the 16th century, says that about 300 ships (annually?) of different
countries come and go from Cambay. He adds that about 400 "Turkish" merchants resided at Diu.
Varthema noted that about fifty ships carried these commodities annually to many places, including
Persia.

Coastal trade

It was natural for the coastal trade to flourish right from Sindh to Bengal, touching Gujarat, Malabar
and Commandel coasts in between. This provided an opportunity for exchange of regional products
along the coastal line distinct from inland inter-regional trade.

Overland trade

During the Sultanate period, overland trade was in a flourishing state. Multan was the major trading
centre for overland trade. India was connected to Central Asia, Afghanistan and Persia through the
Multan-Quetta route. But on account of repeated Mongol turmoil in Central Asia and Persia, this
route was less preferred by the merchants.

Items of Export and Import

The two principal items of import were: (a) horses - that were always in demand for cavalry since
superior horses were not bred in India and Indian climate was not well- suited to Arabian and
Central Asian horses. They were primarily imported from Zofar (Yemen), Kis, Hormuz, Aden and
Persia; (b) precious metals viz. gold and. silver, especially silver that was not at all mined in India but
for which there was a high demand not only for metallic currency but also for fashioning luxury
items. Brocade and silk stuffs were imported from Alexandria, Iraq and China. Gujarat was the major
centre from where the luxury articles from Europe used to enter.
The Sultanate India mainly exported grain and textiles. Some of the Persian Gulf regions totally
depended on India for their food supply. Besides, slaves were exported to Central Asia and indigo to
Persia along with numerous other commodities. Precious stones like agates were exported from
Cambay.

Commercial Classes

Two types of merchants are mentioned in the sources of the Delhi Sultanate: the karwanis or nayaks
and Multanis.

The merchants specializing in carrying grains were designated by Barani as karwanis (a Persian word
meaning those who moved together in large numbers). The contemporary mystic, Nasiruddin
(Chiragh Delhi) calls them nayaks and describes them as those ‘who bring food grains from different
parts to the city (Delhi) – some with ten thousand laden bullocks, some with twenty thousand’.

The other important group of merchants mentioned in sources is the Multanis. Barani says that the
longer distance trade was in the hands of these merchants. They were engaged in usury and
commerce (sud-o-sauda). The sahas and Multanis were rich enough to give loans even to nobles,
who, according to Barani, were generally in need of cash. The sahas and Multanis were generally
Hindu, but at least some Muslims were also among the Multani merchants. For example,
Hamiduddin Multani was called by Barani as malik-ut tujjar (the great merchant).

Another important commercial class that emerged during the Sultanate period was that of the
dallals (brokers). They worked as a link between the buyer and the seller and took commission from
both the parties. Barani says that they were the ‘masters of market’ (hakiman bazar), they were
instrumental in raising prices in the market. Alauddin Khalji used to consult them about the cost of
production of every article in the market in order to fix prices. The reference to ‘Chief’ brokers
(mihtran-i dallalan) by Barani also suggests a somewhat well-established guild of brokers. Firuz
Tughlaq had abolished dalaiat-i bazarha (a tax on broker’s license; a cess on brokers.

Sarrafs were yet another mercantile group whose economic role was no less important than the
brokers. As money changers, they were most sought after by the merchants, especially the foreign
ones who came to India with their native coins. The sarrafs tested the metallic purity of the coins
(indigenous and foreign) and established the exchange-ratio. They also issued bills of exchange
(Hindi: hundi; Persian: suftaja) or letters of credit, thereby acting as ‘bankers’.

Means of transport

It appears that the goods were transported, both, by pack animals and on bullockcarts. Perhaps the
share of the pack animals was more than the latter. Ibn Battuta mentions 30,000 mans of grains
being transported on the backs of 3,000 bullocks from Amroha to Delhi. Bullock-carts were also
used, according to Afif, for carrying passengers on payment. The pack-oxen were of course a cheap
mode of transport travelling slowly, grazing as they went and moving in large herds, thus reducing
the cost of transportation specially along the desert routes. Ibn Battuta describes that the highways
ran through the empire marked by minarets spaced at set distances.