Question

A paragraph on trade during the sultanate period

Answer 1

India’s foreign trade both overland and overseas was truly an international enterprise. Although the Arabs were the dominant partners in the India Ocean trade, they had been by no means ousted the Indian traders, viz. the Tamils and Gujaratis, both Hindu and Muslim.

The coastal trade and trade between the coastal ports and north India was in the hands of Marwaris and Gujaratis, many of whom were Jains. The Muslim Bohra merchants also participated in the trade. The overland trade with Central and West Asia was in the hands of Multanis, who were mostly Hindus and Khurasanis, who were Afghans, Iranians, etc. Many of these merchants had settled down in Delhi.

Answer 2

Answer:

During the sultanate period Hindus occupied an important role in foreign and domestic trade, although foreign Muslim merchants, known as khurasani, also had a large share of it. Seeing the success of the Muslim horsemen, they started to substitute horses for elephants. The exports included large quantities of food-grains and cloth. Among the agricultural products were wheat, millet, rice, pulses, oilseeds, scents, medicinal herbs, and sugar. Some of the countries around the Persian Gulf depended on the subcontinent for their entire food supply.

During this period there was development of textiles, various items of metal work, sugar, indigo and paper. Bengal was the main center of the textile industry, but Gujarat lead as supplier of the export trade during the sultanate period.

Metal industries were the manufacture of swords, guns, and knives, as well as household needs such as trays and basins. Manufacture of sugar was also carried on on a fairly large scale. Delhi was the center of paper making market.