Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s22.1

c18.s22.1

Among the instructions drawn up for the guidance of district officers we have seen one drawing their attention towards the planting of cocoanut trees. In one of our tables of land revenue, we have also seen that every cocoanut tree meant for the Peshwa's treasury an additional income of eight annas. Evidently cocoanut plantation was, therefore, very profitable for the government. But, as I have pointed out, the government knew how to wait, and was in no indecent haste to exact a share of the Rayats' hard-won profits. As we all know, cocoanut plantations do not immediately pay; consequently, labour and capital, invested in them, lay idle for a considerably long period, and the planters required special inducements and concessions. The Peshwa's government, therefore, refrained from taxing these costly plants until they were twenty years old.