THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 131

from it.” Pelsaert, too, writing in Agra in 1626, laid stress
on the instability of the position of the great men in the
Empire; and, when we read the statements of these observers
along with Jahangir's own memoirs and the other chronicles
of the period, we cannot avoid the conclusion that anything
like a far-sighted policy of agricultural development must
have been impossible in the bulk of the Empire, because no
assignee could count on retaining his position long enough
to reap the benefit of his exertions. We must remember
further that the period was one of growing luxury and
extravagance, so that the needs of the assignees would tend
to increase, and it was the peasant who had to pay; all the
circumstances of the time point to the probability of impoverishment,
 rather than development of the resources
of the country.
The contemporary chronicles tell us even less of the
activities of Shahjahan than of Jahangir. A later writer?
indeed, refers to orders issued by him for the increase and
welfare of the peasants, to his constant attention to the
revenue administration, and to his practice of rewarding
those collectors who developed their circles; but I cannot
trace any record of the orders themselves. The fact that
successful collectors were rewarded is made clear? in the
Bidshahnama, and the Emperor's attention to finance
can be inferred from the account already quoted of the
increase in revenue during his reign; what general orders he
issued, if there were any, remains uncertain.
The reign was marked also by the construction of some
canals for irrigation, but the chronicles are silent as to
the revenue side of these enterprises, and it is matter for
conjecture whether or not water-rates were charged;
possibly the resulting increase in land-revenue was regarded
 as sufficient remuneration, since, with annual or
seasonal assessments, the return would be almost immediate.
I have found no record of any other changes, and, so far as
the chronicles go, we might look on the reign as a period of

' See Elliot, vii. 171. The word rendered * collectors’ is chakladar; 1
have not found an earlier use of it, but by the middle of the century
chakla had come to denote the circle of a collector (e.g. Badshahnama, I
. 409), and chakladdr may safely be taken here as denoting the collector.
} Fp. Badshahnama, II, 247, 310.