Delineate non-agricultural production and urban economy in the 13th and 14th centuries C.E.

Answer:

The Delhi Sultanate presided over a marked expansion of urban life and non-agricultural production. State demand, a cash revenue system and revived long-distance trade together sustained flourishing crafts, active markets and some of the largest cities in the contemporary world.

Textile and other crafts

• Cotton, silk and woollen weaving were the largest industries, with Bengal muslin renowned.
• The spinning wheel and improved loom raised productivity substantially.
• Carpet weaving and silk production were introduced or greatly expanded.
• Paper manufacture spread, replacing palm leaf for records and books.
• Metalwork, leather, sugar refining, indigo and building crafts flourished.

Organisation of production

• Royal karkhanas concentrated skilled artisans to supply the court and army.
• Firoz Shah is said to have maintained thirty-six karkhanas.
• Slave labour was employed in some state workshops.
• Urban artisans worked largely as independent craftsmen or for merchant advances.
• Caste and occupational groups organised training and recruitment.

The urban economy

• Delhi grew into one of the largest cities of the fourteenth-century world.
• Daulatabad, Lahore, Multan, Cambay and Lakhnauti were substantial centres.
• Alauddin Khalji's market control regulated prices in separate mandis.
• Merchants (multanis and sahas), brokers (dallals) and money-changers (sarrafs) organised exchange.
• The hundi bill of exchange facilitated long-distance commerce.
• Coinage in silver tanka and copper jital supported a monetised economy.

Trade and its stimulus

• Overland caravan trade linked India to Central and West Asia.
• Horses were the principal import, textiles and indigo the leading exports.
• Maritime trade through Cambay and the Malabar ports connected to the Red Sea and South-East Asia.
• Cash revenue assessment compelled peasants to sell produce, feeding urban markets.
• Irfan Habib regarded this urban expansion as the most striking feature of the period.

Technological change

• The spinning wheel, treadle loom and bow-scutch transformed textile production.
• The Persian wheel improved irrigation and hence the agrarian surplus.
• The true arch, dome and lime mortar revolutionised building.
• Paper making spread the written record through administration and commerce.

Non-agricultural production and urban life thus expanded considerably under the Sultanate, sustained by state demand, monetisation and revived trade. As Irfan Habib emphasised, the towns of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries rested ultimately on the agrarian surplus the state extracted, but they developed a genuine and vigorous economic life of their own.