126 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA

may have varied from time to time, this statement applies
in general terms to the whole of the period under consideration.
 It may be worth while to summarise at this point a
sketch of the financial history of the century which 1s given
in the biographical dictionary! known as the Maasir-ul
Umra: it is not a first-hand authority for this period, and
the exact figures may be open to question; but the matter
contained in the sketch is not likely to have been invented,
and probably it represents the truth in substance, if not in
every detail. According to this authority, under Akbar
the rapidly increasing Imperial expenditure was more than
covered by the growth of the Empire, and reserves in cash
were accumulated. Jahangir neglected the administration,
fraud became rife, and at last the annual income from the
Reserved tracts fell to 50 lakhs of rupees, while the annual
expenditure was 150 lakhs, and the accumulated treasure
was drawn on for large sums. Shahjahan. on his accession,
put the finances on a sound basis: he reserved tracts calculated
 to yield 150 lakhs as income, fixed the normal
expenditure at 100 lakhs, and had thus a large recurring
balance for emergencies. Expenditure rose far above this
limit, but careful administration raised the reserved income
to 300 lakhs (the figure given above) by 1647, and to nearly
400 lakhs by the end of the reign. Aurangzeb at first
endeavoured to maintain the balance between income and
expenditure, but his long wars in the Deccan were ruinous,
and at his death only 10 or 12 krors of rupees were left in
the treasury, a sum which was rapidly dissipated by his
SUCCEeSSOrS.
So far as Jahangir is concerned, this account is closely
in accordance with what we know from the chronicles,
and from the observations of foreign residents in India.
For the latter part of his reign, he left the administration
entirely in the hands of his wife and her brother, a position
which would naturally result in extravagance and inefficiency;
 and his detachment from financial questions is
apparent in the silence of his Memoirs as to what was going
I Maasirulumra, II. 813 ff. The bibliographical note in Elliot (viii.
1 87) shows that the authorship of the dictionary is composite, but no part
of {t is earlier than the eighteenth century, and it was compiled in the
Deccan not in Northern India.