Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s26.13

c18.s26.13

The Mohatarfa, as the above list will show, varied with the means of each individual shopkeeper, and can, therefore, be regarded as an income-tax. The Zakat was levied separately in every district, and this naturally led goods to be stopped frequently in their transit. This, however, was not peculiar to Maharashtra or to India. Tradesmen and merchants were similarly troubled in pre-revolutionary France, and, in Germany before the Zollverein. The Maratha merchants could evade the difficulty. "To remedy this inconvenience, there was a class called Hoondeekurrees in towns, who undertook for a single payment to pass articles through the whole country. These men arranged with the farmers of the customs, and were answerable to them for the sums due."[1] The Peshwa was not unaware of the inconvenience of frequent stoppage of merchandise in course of transit. In 1745-46, Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao ordered that goods passing between Sironj and Burhanpur should pay octroi (Zakat) at one place only.[2]