Essays in Medieval Indian Economic History is part of a three-volume set, comprising representative articles of Indian History Congress Proceedings (1935-85). In their analysis of the economic history of India during the thirteenth-eighteenth centuries, the essays in this volume delineate a shift from the studies of policies to the working of the revenue system, and its impact on the lives of the Indian people. Further, they highlight patterns and trends of agricultural production, the role of Madadd-i-ma’ash holders, and institutions involved in agricultural expansion and improvement, and the incidence of rural taxes. The scholarship also marks the growing interest in urban studies, and in the structure and role of the business community in India, in relation to the growth of the economy in India, and its relationship to the State. Several essays deal with subjects as diverse as coinage and mints, and the international debate on the impact of the European trading companies and their system of armed trade and monopoly on the Indian economy and the Indian business community.
Re-issued in a revised form to synchronize with the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Indian History Congress, the essays in this volume are accompanied by a new Preface and an Introduction that highlight the changing contours of emphasis, shifting focus/es and methodologies and projections of research, held under the aegis of the Indian History Congress.