DEPRECIATION OF THE COINAGE 159 whole habitable world and bring it under his rule. To accomplish this impossible design, an army of countless numbers was necessary, and this could not be obtained without vast sums of money. The Sultan's bounty and munificence had caused a great deficiency in the treas- ury, so he introduced his copper money and gave orders that it should be used in buying and selling, and should pass current, just as the gold and silver coins had passed. The promulgation of this edict turned the house of every Hindu into a mint, and the Hindus of the vari- ous provinces coined crores and lacs of copper coins. With these they paid their tribute, and with these they purchased horses, arms, and fine things of all kinds. The governors, the village headmen, and the landowners grew rich and strong upon these copper coins, but the state was impoverished. No long time passed before distant countries would take the copper tanka only as copper. In those places where fear of the Sultan's edict prevailed, the gold tanka rose to be worth a hundred of the copper tankas. Every goldsmith struck copper coins in his workshop, and the treasury was filled with these copper coins. So low did they fall that they were not valued more than pebbles or potsherds. The old coin, from its great scarcity, rose fourfold and five- fold in value. When trade was interrupted on every side, and when the copper tankas had become more worthless than clods, and of no use, the Sultan repealed his edict and in great wrath proclaimed that whoever possessed
