- Trade: Definition and Phases
- The First Phase (A.D. 700-900)
- Media of Exchange
- Relative Decline of Trade
- Urban Settlements: Decay
- The Second Phase (A.D. 900-1300)
- Crafts and Industry
- Coins and Other Media of Exchange
- Aspects of Trade
- Inland Trade
- Maritime Trade
- Revival of Towns
- Inland Commerce in Mughal Period
- Introduction
- Sources for the Study of Inland Trade
- Inland Trade Under the Mughals
- The Case of Awadh
- The Mughal State and Commerce in the Medieval Period
- Features
- Commercial Communities
- Important Commercial Centres
- International Trade
- Europeans in India
- Transport and Communication
- Mughal’s Revenue
Trade: Definition and Phases
The collection, distribution, and exchange of goods is called trade.
Trade depends on factors like nature and quantity of production, transport facilities, safety and security of traders, and the pattern of exchange.
It involves different sections of society, including traders, merchants, peasants, and artisans.
Political authorities also have a stake in trade, as taxes on commercial goods form an important source of state revenue.
The historical features of trade in the early medieval times can be divided into two phases:
c.700-900 A.D.
c.900-1300 A.D.
In the first phase (c.700-900 A.D.), there was a relative decline in trade, metallic currency, urban centres, and a somewhat closed village economy.
In the second phase (c.900-1300 A.D.), there was a reversal of most of the trends seen in the first phase.
Trade began picking up momentum not only within India but also in relation to other countries.
Metal coins were no longer as scarce as in the first phase.
However, this period did not witness a deeply penetrated monetary economy, as seen in the five centuries following the end of the Mauryas (c.200 B.C.-A.D.300).
The pattern of urban growth was affected by the revival of trade and expansion of agriculture.
The First Phase (A.D. 700-900)
The period from A.D. 750-1000 witnessed widespread practice of granting land not only to priests and temples, but also to warrior chiefs and state officials.
This led to the emergence of a hierarchy of landlords.
Graded state officials such as maha-mandala-vara, mandaka, mantas, mahammanta, thakkura, etc., developed interests in land.
These officials were different from the actual tillers of the soil and lived off the surplus extracted from peasants.
Peasants were left with hardly anything to trade, which resulted in the growth of the rural economy.
Local needs were being satisfied locally through numerous restrictions on mobility of actual producers.
The relative dearth of the medium of exchange, particularly metal coins, strengthened this trend.