The Sultanate Market and the Literary Imagination: Alauddin Khalji’s Economic Policy Revisited
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56062/Keywords:
Sultanate period, Alauddin Khalji, market control, Diwan-i-Riyasat, Shahna-i-Mandi, socio-economic impact.Abstract
This paper presents a strong socio-economic critique of the ‘Market Control Policy’ (Siyasat-i-bazar) of the most powerful and ambitious Sultan of Delhi Sultanate, Alauddin Khalji. The main objective of the study is to consider the reasons that led the sultan to impose strict price controls. It relies chiefly on the chronicles of the historian Ziauddin Barani and demonstrates that the constant Mongol attacks made it necessary to keep a large standing army, and that under limited fiscal means, keeping the commodity prices at a bare minimum was the only way to pay soldiers low wages. The paper goes beyond economic statistics and addresses the general social impact of the policy, which broke down the middlemen, black marketeers, and corrupt traders, but also placed the productive classes—peasants and merchants—in an environment of harsh state control. The study is based on whether Khalji's economic structure was purely military or had a visionary part which was geared towards the economic stabilization of medieval India. Lastly the paper examines the role of the state in the medieval economy by following the policy's downfall and its far-reaching social consequences.
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References
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