Mughal Administration c13.s4.3

c13.s4.3

The most adventurous spirits among the tribe, when settled in a country like India, received an advance of men and money from their chieftain, carved out conquests or brought in plunder, and enjoyed these during their lifetime. But when they died, all their acquisitions legally lapsed to the Government, because they had really been the factors or *entrepreneurs* employed and financed by the tribal State. This practice and tradition of the homeland of Turan continued under the Mughal empire in India. There was no nobleman who was not a servant of the State, a holder of *mansab* or rank in the army. He received advance of money (*musaidat*) and materials (*ajnas*) or other payment on account from the Public Treasury, and his business was to achieve fresh gains for the State by employing these means, and in the end he was to be rewarded by his grateful employer with a share of the profits. Therefore, all his acquisitions were legally bound to revert to the State, as the earnings of a Christian monk must to the order to which he belongs, and those of an *entrepreneur* of industry must to the fund of the joint-stock company that he serves. By the essence and fundamental theory of the Turkish social and political organisation, private property on the part of a State official was as inconceivable as that of a Catholic monk or a factory manager within the factory.