Indian Kingdoms 1200–1500 and the Maritime Trade in Monetary Commodities

Deyell, John S.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-20973-5_3

John S. Deyell⁴

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies ((IOWS))

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Abstract

In this study, Deyell explores the complex ways in which monetary systems of pre-modern India influenced the great Indian Ocean trade in coinage metals (gold, silver, copper) and cowry shells. Noting the Indian subcontinent’s tremendous political, cultural and economic diversity prior to 1500, the study analyses the monetary experiences of different regions and their relative demand for monetary commodities. These needs were met through the interaction of local mining activities, coastal trading communities and overseas trade routes. The study shows how the disparate needs of Indian regions for materials to service their monetary systems comprised a significant “pull” factor shaping the development and evolution of the “international” maritime trade in these commodities.

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Notes

1.
Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1989). Andre Gunder Frank, Re-orient: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998).
2.
Simon Digby, ‘The Maritime Trade of India (c. 1200–1500),’ in The Cambridge Economic History of India, Vol 1, c. 1200–1750, Tapan Raychauduri and Irfan Habib, eds. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982) 125–59; K.N. Chaudhuri, ‘The Rise of Islam and the Pattern of Pre-Emporia Trade,’ in Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005) 34–62; Michael Pearson, ‘Muslims in the Indian Ocean,’ in The Indian Ocean (London, Routledge, 2010) 62–112; André Wink, ‘Islam, Trade and the Coastal Societies of the Indian Ocean,’ in Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vol. III, Indo-Islamic Society, 14th–15th Centuries (Leiden, Brill, 2004) 170–243; Ranabir Chakravarti, ‘Merchants, Merchandise and Merchantmen in the Western Seaboard of India (c. 500 BCE—1500 CE)’ in The World of Indian Ocean Commerce 1500–1800, Om Prakash, ed. (New Delhi, Pearson, 2011) 53–171; Philippe Beaujard, Les Mondes de l’océan Indien, tome II. L’ocean Indien, au coeur des globalisations de l’ancien monde (7^e-15^e siècles) (Paris. Armand Colin, 2012); Edward A. Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History (New York, Oxford, 2014) 40–68; Ranabir Chakravarti, India and the Indian Ocean—Issues in Trade and Politics (up to c. 1500 CE) (Mumbai, Maritime History Society, 2014).
3.
Najaf Haider, ‘International Trade in Precious Metals and Monetary Systems of Medieval India: 1200–1500,’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 59th Session (Patiala, 1998) 237–54. Parts of this were integrated into his more recent article: Najaf Haider, ‘The Network of Monetary Exchange in the Indian Ocean Trade, 1200–1700,’ in Cross Currents and Community Networks: The History of the Indian Ocean World, Himanshu Prabha Ray and Edward A. Alpers, eds. (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2007) 181–205.
4.
André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Vol. II, The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest 11th–13th Centuries (Leiden, Brill, 1997) 265–93. More recently, see Ranabir Chakravarti, ‘The Pull Towards the Coast: Politics and Polity in India (ca. 600–1300 CE),’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 72nd Session, (Patiala, 2011) 22–42.
5.
Sen notes that ‘From the eighth century onwards, the maritime routes between India and China … became more popular than the overland routes.’ He attributes this to disturbances in Central Asia, improvements in shipbuilding techniques and navigational understanding. Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations 600–1400 (Delhi, Manohar, 2003) 176.
6.
Eusebius Renaudot (tr.) Ancient accounts of India and China (London, Harding, 1733) 7. A more recent translation is Gabriel Ferrand (tr.), Voyage du marchand arabe Sulaymân en Inde et en Chine, rédigé en 851, suivi de remarques par Abû Zayd Hasan (vers 916) (Paris, Brossard, 1922) 38.
7.
Hermann Kulke, K. Kesavapany and Vijay Sakhuja, Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia (Delhi, Manohar, 2010); Kenneth Hall, Networks of Trade, Polity and Societal Integration in Chola-Era South India, c. 875–1400 (New Delhi, Primus, 2014).
8.
Sen notes, ‘the aggressive policies of the Yuan court … (1260–1294) facilitated the creation of Chinese maritime networks to southern Asia, consisting of intertwined private trade, governmental and shipping segments. Consequently, for the first time in the history of India-China relations, court officials, traders and ships from China made recurrent trips to the coastal regions of India.’ Tansen Sen, ‘The Formation of Chinese Maritime Networks to Southern Asia, 1200–1450,’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49:4 (2006) 422.
9.
‘From the twelfth century or slightly later we have three segments: The Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. Chinese and Indians went to Melaka, Persians and Arabs only to India.’ Pearson, 88.
10.
‘Since merchants and shippers often had to wait many months for the monsoon winds to shift before resuming their sailing, foreign merchants tended to settle in semi-permanent communities. Ethnically these enclaves were quite diverse, consisting of Gujaratis, Bengalis, Malays, Chinese, Persians and Arabs, though most tended to share a common religious identity as Muslims.’ Richard M. Eaton, ‘Multiple Lenses: Differing Perspectives of Fifteenth-Century Calicut,’ Essays on Islam and Indian History (New Delhi, Oxford, 2001) 79.
11.
Genevieve Bouchon and Denys Lombard, ‘The Indian Ocean in the Fifteenth Century,’ in India and the Indian Ocean, 1500–1800, Ashin Das Gupta and Michael N. Pearson, eds. (Calcutta, Oxford University Press, 1987) 62–4.
12.
Shelomoh Dov Goitein and M.A. Friedman, ‘Letters and Documents on the India Trade in Medieval Times—A Preview,’ in India Traders of the Middle Ages: Documents from the Cairo Geniza (Leiden, Brill, 2008) 3–25.
13.
Henry Yule (tr., ed.), The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian, Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, Vol. II (London, Murray, 1871) 312.
14.
Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 312.
15.
In about 1342, the traveller Ibn Battuta noted, ‘We stayed in the port of Calicut in which there were then thirteen ships of China. … The China Sea is navigated only by the Chinese ships’ Mahdi Husain (tr.), The Rehla of Ibn Battuta (Baroda, Oriental Institute, 1976) 191.
16.
‘Consequently, by the middle of the fourteenth century, a new phenomenon characterized by the shifting of the headquarters of rulers from inland agrarian regions to maritime centres of exchange started appearing in Kerala in the attempt to carve out independent states with the gains accruing from trade.’ Pius Malekandathil, Maritime India: Trade, Religion and Polity in the Indian Ocean (Delhi, Primus, 2010) 85.
17.
Goitein and Friedman, ‘Letters and Documents on the India Trade in Medieval Times—A Preview,’ 9.
18.
Goitein and Friedman, ‘Letters and Documents on the India Trade in Medieval Times—A Preview,’ 13–14.
19.
John S. Deyell, Living Without Silver: The Monetary History of Early Medieval North India (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999) 67–192.
20.
Deyell, Living Without Silver, 193–232.
21.
Shireen Moosvi, ‘Numismatic Evidence and the Economic History of the Delhi Sultanate,’ Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 50th Session, Gorakhpur (1991) 208–15.
22.
Moosvi, ‘Numismatic Evidence and the Economic History of the Delhi Sultanate,’ Table 1, 208 and Table II, 210.
23.
This is an approximation since it ignores the fact that coins of different metals were often of different individual weights.
24.
The assay master of the Delhi mint in 1318 recorded the precious metal content of almost 200 coin types from all over India that had been melted before fashioning into current coin. Thakkura Pheru, Dravya Parīkshā, Muni Jinavijaya, ed. (Jodhpur, 1961).
25.
However, not all types of trade produced a net import of currencies. It is possible that the overland trade, which was dominated by the import of horses from Central Asia, was a drain on precious metal reserves, while the seaborne trade produced a net gain. However, Jackson mentions that in the early fourteenth century, the Delhi Sultans maintained a customs point on the Mongol frontier to tax the horse trade. Certainly the import taxes on Central Asian horses must have been substantial. It is also likely that the horse traders did not travel back to their homelands empty-handed, but carried high-value items to sell. See: Peter Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate, a Political and Military History (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999) 232.
26.
Both Delhi and Jaunpur monetary systems are discussed in John S. Deyell, ‘Precious Metals, Debasement and Cowrie Shells in the Medieval Indian Monetary Systems (ca. 1200–1575),’ in Money in the Pre-industrial World: Bullion, Debasements and Coin Substitutes, John H. Munro, ed. (London, Pickering & Chatto, 2012) 163–82.
27.
An inscription of 1264 records the endowment of a mosque by a Persian trader enjoying strong local protection. Ranabir Chakravarti, ‘Nakhuda Nuruddin Firuz at Somanatha: AD 1264’ in Trade and Traders in Early Indian Society (Delhi, Manohar, 2007) 220–42.
28.
Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 332.
29.
Hoards 22, 34, 35, 47, 73, 75, 86, 91 and 98 in P.L. Gupta Coin Hoards from Gujarat State (Varanasi, Numismatic Society of India, 1969).
30.
Prem Lata Pokharna, ‘A Huge Hoard of Gadhaiya Coins from Kasindra,’ Journal of the Numismatic Society of India 66 (1984) 51–2.
31.
Ranabir Chakravarti, ‘Monarchs, Merchants and a Matha in Northern Konkan (c. 900–1053 AD),’ Indian Economic and Social History Review 27:2 (1990) 189–208.
32.
Metallurgical tables in K.K. Maheshwari, Imitations in Continuity: Tracking the Silver Coinage of Early Medieval India (Mumbai, IIRNS Publications, 2010) 88–9.
33.
Gujarat imported silver from Ilkhanid Persia, gold dinars from Egypt and Rasulid silver coins from Yemen. Haider has highlighted this flow of coins by reviewing the ‘Broach hoard’ of 448 gold coins and 1,200 silver coins, imported into Gujarat as bullion sometime after 1382. Haider, ‘International Trade in Precious Metals and Monetary Systems of Medieval India: 1200–1500,’ 240–2.
34.
Except silver from 1400 to 1450: see the section titled ‘Synchronicity of Bullion Supply and Demand,’ later in this paper.
35.
Hoards 4, 11, 12, 14, 39, 40, 41, 42, 61, 72, 99, 102, 104, 108, 116, 120, 121 and 125 in Gupta op. cit.
36.
Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 330.
37.
‘Find Spots of the Coins,’ in R. Subrahmanyam, A Catalogue of Yadava Coins in the Andhra Pradesh State Museum, Hyderabad (Hyderabad, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1965) 23.
38.
P.L. Gupta, Coins (New Delhi, National Book Trust, 1969) 76.
39.
Gupta, Coins, 425.
40.
H. Nelson Wright, The Coinage and Metrology of the Sultans of Delhi (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1936), 113; S. Goron and J.P. Goenka, The Coins of the Indian Sultanates (New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 2001), 47.
41.
Wright, The Coinage and Metrology of the Sultans of Delhi, 113. Goron and Goenka, The Coins of the Indian Sultanates, 48.
42.
Private correspondence, July 2013, updated March 2015. Among other sources, he consulted Indian Archaeology—A Review (1953–1954 through 2000–2001), and D. Raja Reddy, ‘Hyderabad Museum Collection of Treasure Trove Coins of Bahmani, Vijayanagara, and Yadava Dynasties,’ Journal of the Numismatic Society of India 71 (2009) 105–14.
43.
Deyell, Living Without Silver, 249–50.
44.
Deyell, Living Without Silver, 252.
45.
Haider, ‘International Trade in Precious Metals and Monetary Systems of Medieval India: 1200–1500,’ 188.
46.
Goitein and Friedman, ‘Letters and Documents on the India Trade in Medieval Times—A Preview,’ 19.
47.
“The ships that come from the east bring copper in ballast”: Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, 324.
48.
Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean, 90.
49.
‘Narrative of the journey of Abd-er-Razzak,’ in India in the Fifteenth Century, Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India, R.H. Major, ed. (London, Hakluyt Society, 1992 reprint of 1858 original) 26.
50.
Private communication, 20 July 2013. Also see Phillip B. Wagoner, ‘Money Use in the Deccan, c. 1350–1687: The Role of Vijayanagara Hons in the Bahmani Currency System,’ The Indian Economic and Social History Review 51:4 (2014) 457–80.
51.
Wagoner, ‘Money Use in the Deccan, c. 1350–1687,’ 469 and 478–9.
52.
Ma Huan, 130 and 136.
53.
Wagoner, ‘Money Use in the Deccan, c. 1350–1687,’ 468 and 478–9.
54.
John S. Deyell, ‘Monetary and Financial Webs: The Regional and International Influence of Pre-modern Bengali Coinage,’ in Pelagic Passageways: The Northern Bay of Bengal Before Colonialism, Rila Mukherjee, ed. (Delhi, Primus, 2011) 300.
55.
Tansen Sen, ‘The Formation of Chinese Maritime Networks to Southern Asia, 1200–1450,’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49:4 (2006) 424–5, 429–30.
56.
Husain, The Rehla of Ibn Battuta, 183.
57.
Husain, The Rehla of Ibn Battuta, 188–9.
58.
‘Narrative of the journey of Abd-er-Razzak,’ 13–14.
59.
‘Narrative of the journey of Abd-er-Razzak,’ 19.
60.
Ma Huan, 130.
61.
Ma Huan, 136.
62.
Ma Huan, 141.
63.
Phillip Wagoner reminds us that currency is not to be confused with revenue, which even in coastal states might be largely derived from taxes on agriculture: Phillip B. Wagoner, ‘“Lord of the Eastern and Western Oceans”: Unguents, Politics and the Indian Ocean Trade in Medieval South India,’ in From Local to Global: Papers in Asian History and Culture, Vol. I, Kamal Sheel, Charles Willemen and Kenneth Zysk, eds. (Delhi, Buddhist World Press, 2017) 311.
64.
Ibn Battuta who visited the Maldives Islands after 1342 CE, noted ‘All transactions take place in this country by means of the cowrie. … They are sold to the inhabitants of Bengal for rice, because the cowries are also current in Bengal.’ Husain, The Rehla of Ibn Battuta, 201.
65.
Deyell, Living without Silver, 74, citing J. Heimann, ‘Small Change and Ballast: Cowry Trade and Usage as an Example of India Ocean Economic History,’ South Asia 3:1 (1980) 57; H.U. Vogel, ‘Cowry Trade and its Role in the Economy of Yunnan: From the Ninth to the Mid-Seventeenth Century,’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 36 (1993) 342.
66.
This section relies on data and analysis in Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier 1204–1760 (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1994); Syed Ejaz Hussain, The Bengal Sultanate: Politics, Economy and Coins, AD 1205–1576 (Delhi, Manohar, 2003); John S. Deyell, ‘Cowries and Coins: The Dual Monetary System of the Bengal Sultanate,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review 47:1 (2010) 63–106.
67.
Pranab K. Chattopadhyay, ‘In Search of Silver: Southeast Asian Sources for the Coinage of Bengal’ in Kalhar—Studies in Art, Iconography, Architecture and Archaeology of India and Bangladesh, Gouriswar Bhattacharya et al., eds. (New Delhi, Kaveri Books, 2007) 296–305. John S. Deyell, ‘The China Connection: Problems of Silver Supply in Medieval Bengal,’ in Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, John F. Richards, ed. (Durham, Carolina Academic Press, 1983) 207–27; Deyell, ‘Cowries and Coins: The Dual Monetary System of the Bengal Sultanate,’ 88–91; Bin Yang, ‘The Bay of Bengal Connections to Yunnan,’ in Pelagic Passageways, 317–42.
68.
Kenneth Hall, ‘Coinage Trade and Economy in Early South India and its Southeast Asian Neighbours,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review 36:4 (1999) 449–50.
69.
Ma Huan, 159.
70.
For example, von Glahn notes a collapse of silver production prior to the 1430s: Richard von Glahn, Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000–1700 (London, University of California, 1996) 83, 113. Later the mines must have recovered; Bin Yang notes a doubling of silver mining taxes between 1458 and 1460: Bin Yang, Between Wind and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan (Second Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE) (New York, Columbia University Press, 2009) 195.
71.
Richard Von Glahn, ‘Monies of Account and Monetary Transition in China, Twelfth to Fourteenth Centuries,’ Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53 (2010) 463–505.
72.
Haider, ‘International Trade in Precious Metals and Monetary Systems of Medieval India: 1200–1500,’ 244–6.
73.
Goron and Goenka, The Coins of the Indian Sultanates, relevant geographic chapters.
74.
William S. Atwell, ‘Time, Money and the Weather: Ming China and the “Great Depression” of the Mid-Fifteenth Century,’ The Journal of Asian Studies 61:1 (2002) 87.

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John S. Deyell

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Martin Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
Steven Serels
Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Gwyn Campbell

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Deyell, J.S. (2019). Indian Kingdoms 1200–1500 and the Maritime Trade in Monetary Commodities. In: Serels, S., Campbell, G. (eds) Currencies of the Indian Ocean World. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20973-5_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20973-5_3
Published: 25 August 2019
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