The agrarian system of Moslem India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804119261

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-188010

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Moreland, William Harrison http://d-nb.info/gnd/172263670

Title:: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Edition:: 2. ed. Reissue (d. Ausg. Cambridge) 1929; [Reprint]

Place of publication:: Delhi

Publisher:: Oriental Books, Munshiram Manoharlal

Year of publication:: 1968

Scope:: XVII, 296 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. The Sayyid and Afghan dynasties

Collection:: Economics Books

THE REIGN OF AKBAR (1556-1605) 87 followed. The rates for the 15th year show definite dis- continuity in the case of each province. New crops are introduced for the first time, and action was obviously taken to ensure that all schedules should now be formally complete. There is marked widening in the gaps between maximum and minimum rates, as well as increased diver- gence between provinces, results which would naturally follow from the adoption of local schedules, giving two variables in each case—grain-Demand and price—instead of a fixed Demand commuted at varying prices; and, speaking generally, it is certain from the figures that a general change in assessment was made in this year, though in some cases its full effect was not obtained till a year or two later. From the 15th to the 24th year, on the other hand, the recorded rates show no general discontinuity, and are con- sistent with the inference which can be drawn from the silence of the authorities, that the method of assessment remained unaltered during this period! We may infer also that the rates were on the whole equitable, so far as the grain-Demand was concerned, for we are told very clearly that. their supersession was due to the breakdown of the seasonal commutation, and there is no suggestion that the grain-rates themselves were at fault. The Ain (i. 347) attributes the difficulties which ensued to the expansion of the Empire: the determination of the prices to be used in calculating the Demand was frequently delayed, and this led to constant complaints both’ from peasants and from assignees, until the Emperor devised a remedy. The explanation is convincing when we allow for the fact that the seasonal commutation-prices required Imperial sanction. It is not possible to propose such prices until the prospect of the harvest is reasonably assured; and, as things go in Northern India, very few weeks elapse between that period and the time when collection must begin. We can easily imagine how delays might occur: the proposed rates for Multan, for instance, might reach Agra by courier, only to find that the Emperor was marching to Patna or Ahmadabad, or perhaps that he had delayed his return from Kashmir. In i In particular there is no sign of change in the nineteenth year, when some writers have suggested a revision of assessment-rates.

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