Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s7.2

v1.c15.s7.2

He had employed his position as chancellor to take for himself the most fertile and easy jāgirs and the property of deceased nobles whenever the Government could venture to enforce the law of escheat. He had done this at first by going into shares with Jāvid Khan, but after that eunuch’s death as a sole monopolist. All other nobles starved and laid their unemployment and hardships at his door, but they had to fret in silence for want of any friend or champion. Safdar Jang as wazir was officially in supreme control of the finances. He selfishly seized all the revenue that came in and spent it on his personal contingent, so that the troops of other officers of State and even the Emperor’s palace-guard and artillery remained unpaid for years together, and the starving soldiery frequently rose in mutiny, rioted in the streets, mobbed their officers, blocked the gates of the palace or of the Paymaster's house, preventing ingress and egress and cutting off their inmates' supply of food and drinking water for days together. Such was the visible fruit of this dictator's administration.