History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s1.t4.3

v5.c84.s1.t4.3

Every day he held open Court for administering justice and redressed wrongs very promptly. This he regarded as his most important duty. In his own jagir he ordered that everything collected by the revenue officers above the fixed rent should be returned to the cultivators. Again, the former governors of Bengal used to make monopolies of all articles of food and clothing and other things and sell them at fanciful rates, which the helpless people had to pay. Shaista Khan restored absolute freedom of buying and selling, and also abolished two illegal exactions of his predecessors, namely, a tax of one-fortieth (zakat) on the income of merchants and travellers, and a custom duty (hasil) from every class of artificers and tradesmen "from the rose-vendor down to the clay-seller, from the weaver of fine linen down to that of coarse stuff." Aurangzib had issued orders for abolishing the zakat and hasil in the Crownlands, and left to the jagirdars free choice in respect of them within their fiefs. "But this just, God-fearing, benevolent subahdar abolished the hasil, yielding 15 lakhs of Rupees a year, which used to be collected in his own jagirs......Thus, the peasants and the merchants were freed from oppression and fiscal innovations......Shaista Khan's profuse charity so thoroughly removed poverty and need from Bengal that few labourers or workmen could be had for hire to do any work." [Continuation, as tr. in *Studies*, 160-167.]