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,
