IS 



tens of rupees. In the time of the Emperor Akbar, the land 

 revenue of the territories subject to his rule, which did not 

 extend south of the Vindhya mountains, was 1 GJ millions Rx. in 

 1594 and 17^ millions in 1605. *In Jehangir's time the land 

 'tax continued at 17^ millions. -In the earlier years of Aurang- 

 zebe's reign (1665) the land revenue was 24 millions. It rose 

 to 34i millions in 1670 and to 38f millions in 1697. In the 

 last year of Aurangzebe's reign (1707) the revenue fell to 30 

 millions. " It is stated that in the official statement of the rev^e- 

 nues of the empire presented to the Afghan invader, Ahmed 

 Shah Abdali,^ when he entered Delhi in 1761, the land revenue 

 of the empire was entered as 34^ millions. The significance of 

 the above figures will be rightly estimated when it is remem- 

 bered that between the years 1593 and 1605 the price of wheat 

 averaged between 186 to -J24 lb. per rupee and barley 275J 

 lb. per rupee, i.e.^ the price of wheat and barley in the end of 

 the 16th century was between one-sixth and one-seventh of 

 what it is at present. 



9. The Hindu Shastras consigned the king, who exacted 

 The devices resorted "lore than one-sixth^ or one-fourth of the 

 to with a view to in- pToducc, to infamy iu this world and the 



crease revenue. 



torments of hell in the next, but the 

 Muhammadan law had no such scruples. The Hedaia states : 

 " The learned in the law allege that the utmost extent of tribute 

 is one-half of the actual product, nor is it allowable to exact 

 more ; but the taking of a half is no more than strict justice 

 and is not tp'annical, because, as it is lawful to take the whole 

 of the person and property of infidels and distribute them 



" The revenues of the Moghul emperors appear to have been carefully investigated 

 by Mr. Edward Thomas in his book, entitled The Rcvcmte Resources of the Moghul 

 Empire. The particulars available as regards the revenue of .the several provinces during 

 the time of the Moghuls have been extracted from the article on " India" in Hunter's 

 Gazetteer and printed in the appendix C, section I. The figures quoted appear indeed 

 fabulous. Take, for instance, the land revenue of Orissa — £450,000 — which, allowing for 

 the depreciation in the value of the precious metals, would at the present day be equiva- 

 lent to £3,600,000. The present area of cultivation in Orissa is 2 5 millions of acres. If 

 the whole area had been under cultivation in the r2th centui-y, the land tax per acre would 

 be £j-9-0; if only half, which is more likely, it would bo £2-18-0. The tax would 

 represent a much larger proportion of the gross produce than one-half. This seems 

 likely ; in the beginning of the present century the tax represented nearly |ths of the 

 gross produce, and the cultivators were left only the barest means of subsistence and 

 often not even that, a portion of the so-called land tax being met out of the earnings from 

 dairy produce and -domestic industries, such as weaving. Much of the revenue consisted 

 of payments in kind, and the Government sold the grain at monopoly rates. '1 he revenue 

 shown in the accounts, also were, to a great extent, nominal and much of it probably 

 remained unrealized, because it was imppssible to realize it. The fact, however, of the 

 demand being fixed so high as to absorb nearly the whole of the gross produce shows that 

 the Government took all that it could. Even the principle laid down by the l''.mperor 

 Akbar, who was immeasurably in advance of his time, for regulating land assessment will 

 not, according to modern standards, be accepted as liberal. He said: "There shall be 

 left fof every man who cultivates -his lands as much as he requires for his own support till 

 the next crop be reaped, and that of his family and for seed. This much shall be left to 

 him ; what remains is the land tax and shall go to the public treasury.'' 



