92 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
plain that the ten-year rates were equally binding on 
assignees and on official collectors. For the greater portion 
then of the reign, if not for the whole, the sanctioned 
assessment-rates were binding on the whole country to 
which they applied, with the exception—probable, though 
not recorded—of those tracts for which Chiefs paid a definite 
tribute instead of a varying annual revenue. 
This does not necessarily mean that every assignee 
complied, in all its details, with the schedule in force. 
An ordinary man, intent only on realising the Income to 
which he was entitled, and, if possible, a little more, would 
naturally follow the line of least resistance, and fall in with 
any local customs he might find in operation. The true 
implication is, I think, that the sanctioned assessment-rates 
set the standard of Demand throughout the whole country. 
An assignee would not in ordinary circumstances be content 
with a lower Income than they would yield; he might try 
to collect something more, but activity in this direction 
would be controlled by the fear of anything like a scandal. 
Assignees might, as we shall see, be called on to refund any 
sums which they were known to have collected in excess of 
their sanctioned Income, and any considerable excess would 
set informers and enemies to work; while the Emperor 
was accessible to complaints, and Akbar would probably 
have taken serious notice of any open disregard of his 
orders in regard to assessment. The conditions of the 
period then suggest that peasants under an assignee would 
ordinarily pay as much as, but not much more than, 
peasants in the Reserved areas. 
2. THE ASSIGNMENTS 
We have just seen that in one important feature the 
Assignment-system in force under Akbar differed from that 
which had prevailed earlier in the century, and this fact 
may serve as a warning against any assumption that its 
nature remained unchanged throughout the period of 
Moslem rule. During the Mogul period most of the in- 
cidents of the system are readily ascertainable, and their 
studv is essential. because, almost throughout the period,