The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.52

v4.c22.52

Contemporary authorities furnish very little information regarding the revenue system which was in operation under Jahāngīr, but the general slackness and inefficiency which characterised the greater part of his reign may safely be assumed to have left their mark on a department which, as has been said above, depended for success entirely on the quality of the administration; and this inference is borne out by the fact that the income from the reserved areas fell off seriously and progressively, so that, towards the close of the reign, the accumulations in the treasury were being drawn on to meet current expenditure. The most probable view is that Akbar's regulation system was discarded during this reign, and replaced by village assessments, made with the headmen or with farmers as circumstances might permit; and the silence of the chronicles is consistent with the hypothesis that this change was not made formally or deliberately, but came about gradually as the vigour of the administration declined.