describe briefly about the trade and economy in Sultanate.
Answers
There is no doubt that India by and large remained a rich country throughout this period.
Foreign travellers who visited India during this period have observed that the people used gold, silver, diamonds, pearls and other precious stones profusely in the form of ornaments.
It was India’s fabulous wealth which tempted Mahmud of Ghazni to invade India so many times.

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Timur also got unimaginable wealth from only one of India’s corners. We find several prosperous cities and parts during this period. The Sultans of Delhi, nobles, governors, merchants and elites of the society possessed vast wealth and enjoyed all comforts of material life.
Several beautiful mosques, monuments, palaces, forts and temples were built during this period. All this indicates that there was general economic prosperity in the country. Despite constant warfare of the Sultans of Delhi, affluent agricultural and industrial production and foreign trade had enriched India and maintained its prosperity.
Achievements in various fields of Indian economy were mostly on account of private enterprise. Very little was done by the Sultans and provincial governors towards the direct development of trade and industry. Food in general was not a problem for the common man. The problem of shelter did not worry the people.
Prosperous agriculture:
According to Ibn Batuta, a traveller who came from North Africa in India during the fourteenth century, agriculture was in a state of great progress. The soil was so fertile that it produced two crops every year; rice being sown three times a year.
Sesame, sugar-cane and cotton were grown in abundance and these formed the basis of several village industries. Rice of Sarsauti, sugar-cane of Kanauj, wheat and betel leaf of Malwa, wheat of Gwalior, ginger and spices of Malabar, grapes and pomegranates of Daultabad, betel nuts of the South India and a large variety of oranges were popular in and outside India.
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.
These industries were mainly privately owned, but the government equipped and managed large-scale karkhanas, or factories, for supplying its requirements. The royal factories at Delhi sometimes employed as many as four thousand weavers for silk alone. The example of the sultan of Delhi was followed by the rulers of the regional kingdoms.