A History of Agriculture in India v2.c85.s5: Mode of Leasing Land and Tax-Gathering
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c85.s5
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Mode of Leasing Land and Tax-Gathering
v2.c85.s5.1
The method of leasing land and tax-gathering is thus described by Niccolao Manucci: ‘At the beginning of their year, which is in June, the officials come from the court to the villages and compel the peasants to take up the land at a certain rate. This bargain made, they must give notice at harvest-time to the king’s officers, for without their permission the peasants may not harvest the grain. As soon as notice is received the officials proceed to the spot, and before allowing the crop to be cut, they ask the cultivators whether they are willing to give a half or a third more than they have contracted for at the beginning of the year. Should the cultivators agree to this, writings are drawn up and security taken; but after having made the bargain, they usually find that what they gather in does not suffice to meet the king’s rent. It thus happens, more often than not, that they find themselves ruined by this revenue payment.
v2.c85.s5.2
‘It is for this reason that many of them, when the royal officials try to increase the demand, reply that they can pay no more than they agreed to before signing the papers. But this way, too, they find themselves equally ruined, for the officials then remain present during the harvest, and inspect the cutting of all the crops, the cultivator also being present.
v2.c85.s5.3
'When all is ready, they first place on one side the cultivator's share; next they compel him, then and there, to buy the king's share. When in the country-side one measure is selling for six sols, they force the peasants to give them nine. In this way, whatever be the method employed, the poor cultivator finds himself ruined. Nothing is left to him to maintain his family, seeing that they are obliged to enter every year into new engagements in order to get a subsistence for their family and obtain fresh supplies.'¹
v2.c85.s5.4
¹ Manucci, Niccolao. *Storia Do Mogor or Mogul India*, Vol. III, pp. 46, 47
v2.c85.s5.5
The *omrahs* also enjoyed no security of property. There was a system of escheat, the Emperor constituting himself as the sole heir of the property of those who died in his service. The most astonishing thing was that the avarice of the nobles had no solid basis, though they devoted themselves entirely to gathering their treasures, without a thought of the cruelty or injustice involved, observed Pelsaert. 'Immediately on the death of a lord who has enjoyed the king's *jagir*, be he great or small, without any exception—even before the breath is out of his body—the king's officers are ready on the spot, and make an inventory of the entire estate, recording everything down to the value of a single pice, even to the dresses and jewels of the ladies, provided they have not concealed them. The king takes back the whole estate absolutely for himself, except in a case where the deceased has done good service in his lifetime, when the women and children are given enough to live on, but no more.'²
v2.c85.s5.6
² Moreland, W.H. and Geyl, P. (tr). *Jahangir's India—the Remonstrantie of Francisco Pelsaert*, pp. 54, 55, p. 47