The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c11.s7.10

c11.s7.10

The low scale of both grain prices and wages proves only one thing-the thorough exploitation of the peasants and the workers. But this was an Indian-and not a Rajasthani-misfortune. Tavernier, for example, could on his journey from Surat to Agra get 50 guards at Rs.4 per month each. aThe states and the governing classes tried to appropriate the whole surplus value of labour. Still the condition of the workers and peasants was probably better in Rajasthan than in, the Mughal empire.¹⁶³ The situation in the Mughal empire is summed up by W.H. Moreland like this: In several instances the lowest grades of servants were entitled to less than two rupees monthly (65 dams for a sweeper, 60 for a camel-driver, 70 for a wrestler, and so on), while the bulk of the menials and of the ordinary foot-soldiers began at less than three rupees. The minimum for subsistence at the court is probably marked by the lowest grade of slaves, who were allowed one *dam* daily, equivalent to three-quarters of a rupee monthly in the currency of the time artisans were, as a rule badly off, and they can scarcely have been able to pay high wages to their journeymen The facts available regarding the wages paid by travellers and merchants come almost entirely from the south and west of India. Terry insists on the excellence of the servants obtained for five shillings, or say two rupees a month, and he adds that they would send half this sum home; probably this statement relates to servants hired in Surat, but in any case it refers to this part of the country, as Terry went no farther north than Mandu. Valle, writing of Surat about ten years later put the rate at not more than three rupees, while De Laets informants gave him from three to four rupees, which could be supplemented in some cases by commission charged on purchases. A messenger between Surat and Masulipatam was in 1641 allowed seven or eight *mahmudies* (say something between three and four rupees) for the journey These instances appear to justify the conclusion that early in the seventeenth century foreigners could secure capable servants for somewhere about three rupees a month. What this represents in real wages is uncertain (But) The rates struck Europeans as extraordinarily low, and taken with those which prevailed in the northern capital they enable us to understand the great development of domestic employment which characterised the life of India at this period.¹⁶⁴ The important point to note is that servants, messengers and escorts were in great demand. Any journey seems to have been inconceivable without a certain number of them. William Hawkins, who was in India in Jahangirs reign, found that almost a man cannot stir out of doors throughout all his dominions without great forces, for they are all become rebels. Tavernier said that, in about 1660, to travel with honour in India, one hired 20 to 30 armed men, some with bows and arrows and others with muskets. They cost Rs.4 a month.¹⁶⁵ The profession must have been well organised and yet the wages were miserably low.