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 im- 
poverishment, 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 re- 
garded 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.