The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.2

v4.c22.2

THE fiscal resources of the Mughul empire may be considered in two main divisions—central and local. The local revenue, which was apparently collected and disbursed without reference to the central finance authorities, was derived from a bewildering variety of petty taxes and duties levied on production and consumption, on trades and occupations, on various incidents of social life, and most of all on transport. There is nothing to be said for this mass of imposts except that the system was accepted by the people as traditional, that it prevailed outside the empire as well as within, and that it can be traced back at any rate to the days of the Maurya rulers. In the fourteenth century these imposts had been forbidden in the mass by Fīrūz Tughluq as being contrary to Islamic law. The prohibition was renewed on other grounds by Akbar, and it was repeated by Aurangzīb,¹ but the effect of these orders was transitory, and the system maintained itself up to the close of the Mughul period.