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How Do You Feed an Army Without Emptying the Treasury? - Feeding the Sultan's Cavalry | Sleepy Facts About History
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In 1296, Sultan Alauddin Khalji took the throne in Delhi and confronted a stark arithmetic problem. The Mongol armies were advancing, demanding a massive standing cavalry to defend the sultanate. Yet the royal treasury lacked the funds to pay soldiers enough to survive the city's rising grain prices. His solution was an aggressive system of market regulations and price controls designed to lower the cost of living. This episode examines the administrative machinery of these markets, from…
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