THE 13tH AND l4tH CENTURIES 37

was, it must be remembered, strong just where modern
systems are weak, for he could rely on an elaborate organisation
 of spies, and there was no sentimental objection in
the way of effective punishment.
The question of practicability is, however, mainly a
matter of extent. No attempt was made to keep down
prices throughout the kingdom; effort was limited to Delhi,
where the standing army was concentrated; and the regulations
 extended only to a region sufficiently large to ensure
the isolation of the Delhi market. Isolation was favoured
by the circumstances of the time. To the North lay the
submontane forests, to the South the disturbed and unproductive
 country of Mewat. The city depended for its
ordinary supplies on the River-Country to the East, and
on the productive parts of the Punjab to the West; the
cost of transport was necessarily high in the case of bulky
produce; the industry was specialised in the hands of the
professional merchants?; and, given effective control of
these, the isolation of the market could be completely
effected.
The point which specially concerns us in these regulations
is the supply of agricultural produce. The whole revenue
due from the River Country, and half the revenue due from
Delhi, was ordered to be paid in kind, and the grain so
collected was brought to the city, and stored for issue as
required; while peasants and country traders were compelled
 to sell their surplus at fixed prices to the controlled
merchants, with heavy penalties for holding up stocks. I
think 1t is quite clear that this rule involved a change in
practice, or, in other words, that, in this part of the country,
collections had been ordinarily made in cash, and not in
produce. during the thirteenth century. Taking all the

L There are definite indications that the system was perfected by
degrees. At the outset (p. 304), the King wished to avoid severe punishments,
 but the shopkeepers would not abandon their practice of giving
short weight (p. 318), until at last a rule was made that, on detection, the
deficiency should be cut from the seller's person; and (p. 319) the fear of
this punishment proved sufficient to put a stop to fraud.
® Barni calls the professional merchants karavaniyan: they may safely
be identified with the banjaras of later times. The merchants were compelled
 to deposit their wives and children as security for their conduct,
and these pledges were settled near Delhi under the control of an overseer
p. 306)