discribe the token currency of tughluq
Answers
Edward Thomas has described Muhammad Tughluq as “a prince of mooneyes”. He points out that one of the earliest acts of his reign was to remodel the coinage, to re-adjust its divisions to the altered values of the precious metals and to originate new and more exact representative of the subordinate circulation.”
A new gold coin weighting 200 grains and called Dinar by Ibn Batuta was issued by Muhammad Tughluq. He revived the Adali coin containing MO grains of silver in place of the old gold and silver coins weighting 175 grains. This change was probably due to a “fall in the relative value of gold to silver, the imperial treasury having been replenished by large quantities of the former metal as a result of the campaigns of the Deccan.”
In 1329 and 1330, the Sultan issued a token currency in copper coins. There were already examples of such a currency in China and Persia. Kublai Khan, the Mongol Emperor of China, had introduced a paper currency in China towards the close of the 13th century.
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Gai Khatu, the ruler of Persia, made a similar experiment in 1294 A.D. with these examples before him; Muhammad Tughluq issued a decree proclaiming that in all transactions, copper tokens should be accepted as legal tender like gold and silver coins.
According to Barani, “This edict turned the house of every Hindu into a mint and the Indians of the provinces coined lakhs and crores of copper coins, with which they paid their tribute and bought horses and arms and fine things of all sorts. The Rais, the village headmen and land-owners grew rich on these copper coins but the state was impoverished.
In no long time distant countries would only accept the copper Tanka as metal and in places where reverence for the edict prevailed the gold Tanka rose to be worth a 100 copper Tankas. Every goldsmith struck copper coins in his workshop and the treasury was crammed with them. The fell so low that they were no more valuable than pebbles or potsherds. Trade being disrupted, the Sultan repealed his edict and in great wrath proclaimed that all the copper coins should be redeemed in gold or silver at the treasury.
Thousands brought them for exchange and their heaps rose up in Tughluqabad like mountains.” Barani tells us that the experiment was due to two causes. The first cause was the need of money to maintain the great army of conquest numbering 3, 70,000. The second cause was the deficiency in the treasury caused by the lavish gifts made by the Sultan.
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Another probable cause can be the relative scarcity of silver in the market. According to Dr. Ishwari Prasad, another probable cause was the love of experiment on the part of the Sultan who was a man of original cast of mind, well-versed in the arts and sciences of the age.
The Sultan might have felt a powerful impulse for the experiment in a scientific spirit. The royal exhortations which accompanied the introduction of the currency and the subsequent behavior of the Sultan effectively rebut the charge of eccentricity which has been brought against him by modern writers.
Many reasons have been given for the failure of this monetary experiment of Muhammad Tughluq. It is pointed out that this carefully organised measure failed because it was in advance of the time and the people could not realise its real importance. To the people at large in those days, brass was brass and copper was copper, however urgent the needs of the state might be.