Administrative System of the Marathas c11.s4.18

c11.s4.18

But neither the land revenue, nor the customs duties and the income from mints, added so much to the treasury of Shivaji as the Chauth and the Sardeshmukhi. Even in normal times he depended more on his army than on his civil officers for the necessary finances. It is on this account that he has been branded as a robber chief both by his contemporaries and by posterity as well. But the great Maratha king had no other alternative. He had to brave the enmity of the Mughals and the Sultan of Bijapore, not to count the pinpricks that he had often to bear from such minor powers as the Habshis of Janjira, the Portuguese of Goa, and petty semi-independent chiefs like the Koli Rajas. He had to organise an army to defend his newly conquered territories, he had to build innumerable forts to fortify difficult passes, he had to fit out a fleet to prevent the piracy and the depredations of the Siddi's navy, he had to buy arms and ammunitions and needed money for these works. Nature was by no means munificent to the Maratha. The valleys yielded but a scanty return to the strenuous labour of the Mawali peasants. It would have been impossible for Shivaji to finance his army and navy from the limited resources of his native land alone, even if he had taxed all his ingenuity to enhance them. Consequently he had to make war furnish the means of war.