Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India c8.s7.12

c8.s7.12

As Abul Fazl rightly remarks: "In every country such demands are troublesome and vexatious to the people. His majesty (Akbar) in his wise statesmanship and benevolence of rule carefully examined the subject and abolished all arbitrary taxation..."²⁰⁵ But corruption and harassment remained common at least under his successors. The person and goods of the traders in transit were systematically searched. Thevenot says that "men may wait sometimes a month before they can get out their baggage and specially they who have Merchant goods."²⁰⁶ The evil effects of this system were widely known. Besides abolishing many such taxes in port towns, Jahangir ordered that "Merchants travelling through the country were not to have their bales or packages of any kind opened without their consent."²⁰⁷ Sometimes religious persecution added to the woes of merchants who closed or threatened to close their business.²⁰⁸ But royal regulations could not stop extortion. As a modem economic historian points out, "It is mentioned that Mir Jumla once demanded Rs.50,000 from the merchants of Dacca. On refusal they were threatened with death by being trampled by elephants and compromised for Rs.25,000 while the bankers of the city appeased his wrath by paying Rs.30,000 without much ado. Occasionally, however, the mercantile community could protest successfully against the exactions of a governor or high administrative officer by *hartal* or suspension of business."²⁰⁹ In any case, as mentioned by Jadunath Sarkar, "Foreign trade... occupied a negligible position in the economics of the Mughal empire, on account of its small volume - the total yield of the import duty being probably less than 30 lakhs of Rupees a year, while the land revenue brought to the State one hundred and eleven times that amount."[210](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9788185990743) As mentioned earlier, in other Muslim countries customs duties were regularly collected but in Muslim state in India, Muslim traders were granted liberal exemptions. Besides, income from such sources was shared by the king and his officers. And this income was subsidiary or auxiliary. The main sources of income of the Muslim state were the four regular taxes - Khams, Kharaj, Jiziyah and Zakat. It is on these four pillars that the economic structure of the Muslim government rested.