The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.6

v4.c22.6

There was no uniform system of taxing salt, and some important sources were controlled locally; the mines in the Punjab and the salt lake at Sāmbhar in Rājputāna were, however, administered by the state. The income from these sources was apparently brought to account as part of the land-revenue, and cannot be stated in precise figures, but on the basis of the available statistics it cannot have been more than about one million rupees. Compared with the present standards, customs duties were formally low, ranging from 5 per cent. downwards, but in practice their incidence was seriously increased by arbitrary over-valuation, and by extra charges for prompt clearance of goods. Some idea of the magnitude of the customs revenue can be formed from the fact that in the middle of the seventeenth century the port of Surat, at that time by far the most important source, was reckoned to yield half a million rupees a year, after the cost of its administration had been met.