Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/130

124 24 millions; but the British government is contented with less than 1/15th of the gross produce, instead of 1/3rd. Were the Mughal third exacted, the present land tax of British India (which is of course a much larger area than Mughal India) would probably amount to 80 millions.

Some idea may be formed of the surplus of the land revenue over the expenses of administration, from a statement in the Mir-át-i 'A'lam ascribed to Bakhtáwar Khán or Muhammad Baká. This history fixes the revenue at 9,24,17,16,082 dáms (about £30,850,000), and adds 'out of which the Khálisa, or sum paid to the Royal Treasury, is 1,72,79,81,251 dáms, and the assignments of the jágírdárs [or grantees of the lands], or the balance, is 7,51,77,34,731 dáms.' There is a slight error in the arithmetic, but the important deduction may be drawn that, after paying the cost of administration, including the high salaries of the mansabdárs, to whom the estates were assigned as jágírs, about a sixth to a fifth of the total land revenue accrued as surplus to the imperial exchequer.

To arrive at any definite estimate of the gross revenue is impossible, owing to the fluctuating character of the taxation apart from the rent drawn from land. The Mughal Emperors were constantly remitting taxes, but it is not clear how far these remissions were temporary, or whether their place was taken by other imposts. A list of thirty-eight taxes remitted or reduced by Akbar is given in