xii 
INTRODUCTION 
exists, but a brief reference is required to the main factors 
which have operated, because it is only by consciously 
eliminating these factors that we can reach a just idea of the 
conditions which prevailed in the earlier period. It is a 
commonplace of history that the nineteenth century brought 
to Northern India a degree of internal tranquillity which 
had not previously been enjoyed; and that the result was 
seen in a rapid growth of population, and the development 
of competition for productive land. In the Moslem period, 
such competition scarcely existed, outside relatively small 
areas; and we have to bear in mind that, in most parts of 
the country, land was waiting for men with the resources 
necessary for its cultivation. Another gift of the nineteenth 
century was what is conventionally described as the Rule 
of Law, superseding by degrees the personal rule of the Mos- 
lem period; while a third factor, which is perhaps less 
generally recognised, was the spread of benevolent or 
philanthropic ideals which characterised the century, not 
merely in India, but throughout the civilised world. To 
trace the operation of these factors is the task of the his- 
torian of the British period: my object in mentioning them 
here is merely to emphasise the point that, in trying to 
appreciate the Moslem system, we must be careful to exclude 
them from our estimate. In other words, we must get 
away from the ideas of competition for land, of respect for 
written law or precedent. and of modern administrative 
philanthropy. 
Such is the scope of my essay, but in order to explain the 
method of study a few words must be said regarding its 
genesis. The importance of the subject was impressed 
forcibly on me some years ago, when I was collecting 
materials for a sketch of the economic situation of India 
in the time of Akbar. The fact that in the Mogul period 
the State disposed of from a third to a half of the gross 
produce of the land constituted it by far the most potent 
factor in the distribution of the national income; while its 
action in regard to distribution inevitably reacted on 
production, so much so that we are justified in concluding 
that, next only to the weather, the administration was the 
dominant fact in the economic life of the country.