2 M.A. (History), University of Kashmir. (India)

ABSTRACT

As History is witness to the fact that Ala-ud-din Khalji of Medieval India should be considered as a great Market Reformer of medieval Indian History. As we all know the prime necessity of man is food to which the Sultan gave his first and fullest attention. He first regulated the price of food grains and fixed them at very low rates. As mentioned in Tarikh-e-Feroz Shahi, the prices fixed by sultan were the lowest compared with those that prevailed in the reigns of his predecessors and successors. The Sultan introduced a strict price control mechanism by separating each and every market. The Sultan established separate shopping centers in Delhi for grain, cloth, sugar, dried fruits, herbs, butter, oil, horses, cattle and even slaves. Those shops were run by two types of merchants, firstly those who had permanent shops in Delhi and may be called retailers and distributors and secondly, by those carvanians of travelling merchants who brought grain to the city from mostly the hinterlands. In every market a Superintendent was appointed by the Sultan, so that to look after the market, the Sultan ordered that the travelling merchants should get themselves registered with the superintendent of market before coming into the market. Alauddin issued a royal order for controlling the food prices to all the collectors (Shahnaganand Mutsaprifan) of different regions to collect the grains from cultivators and then send it to the Royal treasury.

No doubt historians wrote that this market policy was to meet the interests of large army but at the same time it gave large benefit to common masses as well.