The agrarian system of Moslem India

Bibliographic data

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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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter I. Antecedents

Collection:: Economics Books

ANTECEDENTS A. INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT Under this head we have to consider two methods, Estimation and Measurement, which can be traced in the Indo-Persian literature back to the thirteenth century, and a third, Contract, which appears in the literature much later. In Estimation, the amount of the State’s share is deter- mined by inspection of the growing crop, the peasant’s liability is fixed before the produce is ripe, and its collection can be effected at the most convenient time. This method also has persisted into modern times as between landholder and tenant. Its advantage lies in the longer period over which operations can be spread; but, as in actual crop- division, the master’s eye is an important factor in efficiency, and, when the operation is carried out by subordinates working over a large area, there is the ever-present risk of the assessors conspiring with the peasants to defraud the State, or the landholder. The processes of Estimation and Division are very closely allied. I think it may fairly be said that, at the opening of the nineteenth century, wherever payments depended on the season’s produce, Estimation was the rule, and Division was usually confined to the rare cases in which the estimate was disputed; and probably this practice was of old standing. It is convenient therefore to group the two processes under the label *‘Sharing,” and I shall use this term, distinguishing between Division and Estimation only when the context requires.. Measurement appears to be in essence an attempt to eliminate the risks attendant on Sharing by adhering to verifiable facts. Under it an average, or standard, figure for the share of the State from the unit-area of each crop was determined once for all, or, more precisely, until the State should decide to recalculate it, and the actual demand was assessed by measuring the areas of the crops sown at each season: if, for instance, the State's share was fixed at 100 lb. of wheat for the unit of area known as a bigha, then each bigha sown with wheat would be assessed at that amount without reference to the actual yield. The accuracy of the measurements could be checked at any time while

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