History Notes - Alauddin Khilji - the First Muslim Emperor

Alauddin Khilji was the first Muslim emperor who had almost the whole of India under his control. In administration, he was a man of action as well as innovator. In his economic reforms, the most important thing he introduced was the policy of market control. […hostorian’s name missing - available in final note…] said, “[…missing some words - available in final note…]”. During the lifetime Alauddin, his economic reforms were highly enforced and very much successful.

The extensive dominions of the empire as well as the Mongol raids on the NorthWest frontier compelled Alauddin to maintain a large standing army. This caused enormous expenditure which the State could not afford to sustain. According to Barni, […missing 27 words - available in final note…]. Alauddin introduced a plan through which he could maintain a large army. He fixed the salary of a soldier at the rate of 234 Tonkas per year with an additional allowance with 78 Tonkas for those who kept two horses. In order to enable his soldiers to meet their expenses with the fixed salary, he permanently settled […missing 37 words - available in final note…] confined to the capital and adjoining areas.

Alauddin also issued instructions to the revenue officers that they should force cultivation to sell their grain to the travelling merchants at the prices fixed by the state. The state did not leave any scope for failure of the price control. As precaution against scarcity of food grains in bad weather, the Government maintained stock of grains in Govt. grain stores. […missing 26 words - available in final note…] These officials also gave separate reports about the rates and working of the market.

On the patron of the food market, Alauddin also established separate markets for various commodities like cloth market, horse market etc. The cloth market remained open from early morning till the hour of the last prayer at night. To check the people against sending out the cloth purchased in Delhi at cheap rates, […missing 28 words - available in final note…] asked to give receipts in token for their goods. Thus the possibility of black

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marketing was much minimized.

Alauddin also fixed prices for other articles. In fact, he left no item to be sold at random. Thus there were fixed prices for sweets, vegetables, shoes etc. It is quite possible that the regulation for fix prices must not have been enforced very rigorously (exactly) for all the items, but the