The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.70

v4.c22.70

These Bengal landholders were not, however, allowed to retain the entire profit resulting from the economic recovery which followed on the establishment of Dutch and British trade in this region after the middle of the seventeenth century. The revenue due from them was not formally enhanced, but it was supplemented from time to time by the imposition of cesses and other additional demands, amounting in the aggregate to an enhancement not far short of the whole sum originally payable. It was in this way that the situation developed which was found by the first English administrators in Bengal—the bulk of the country held by a relatively small number of landholders, who enjoyed practical freedom in their relations with the peasants, and paid to the state dues which were in fact adjustable at its discretion, but by methods which are not known to have been practised elsewhere in Mughul India.