Abraham Eraly - The Age of Wrath - A History of the Delhi Sultanate

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.