Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/44

38 such minute and complicated details; that a very large portion of the Province was waste and jungle, and that a Permanent Settlement would give confidence to the Zamíndárs, increase to agriculture, and stability to Government. It is well here to dwell on a fact which of late years has been conveniently or negligently overlooked ; and this is that the share of the Zamíndár was in those days reckoned at only one-tenth of his whole receipts. The remaining nine-tenths were to go to the Government. If a Zamíndár declined after a trial to engage for the collection of the revenue in any district, and another man became the collecting agent, an allowance, of ten per cent, only, was set aside for the excluded Zamíndár, and the same rule was followed in the case of minors and females. Shore anticipated that on the confirmation of the proposed assessment, the profits of the Zamíndár might reach to nearly fifteen per cent. It is not superfluous to state that while we have no absolute certainty as to the net profits of Zamíndárs at the present day, we may safely conclude that in very many cases they far exceed Shore's moderate estimate.

In another important point Shore and Cornwallis were at issue. There were certain internal duties which the Zamíndárs had been in the habit of levying. They were known as sáyer and ráhdárí or transit dues, and as taxes on goods exposed for sale in the wholesale and retail markets of the country. It is