Page:The Musnud of Murshidabad (1704 - 1904).djvu/36

[ 8 ] monarchs. Clive, after his victorious entry into the city, found that the inhabitants were so numerous, that if inclined to destroy the Europeans, they might have done so with sticks and stones.

Apart from income derived from land assessment, the variable revenue of Murshidabad, about the year 1725, which included the Syer Choonakhali or inland customs levied in the city and its environs, taxes on houses, shops, bazars, license fees for vending spirituous liquors, duties on export of raw silk and piece goods manufactured in or about the capital and tolls on bridges and ferries, amounted to Rs. 3,11,603. The mint duties of Murshidabad amounted to Rs. 3,04,000 at two per cent, on the bullion coined. Thus the taxes only amounted to over six lacs of rupees. To-day the Municipal income of the city falls far short of thirty thousand rupees.

Of seven hundred families of Lala Kayeths or Behari Scribes, who inhabited the portion of the city known as Chitakhana, which is now a desolate jungle, and found remunerative occupation in the departments of the Nizamut, hadlyhardly [sic] seven male representatives yet live in Murshidabad. From the pinnacles of the turrets of seven hundred mosques, the voices of seven hundred shouters of the azan simultaneously rent the atmosphere of the crowded city. Of these places of worship, hardly seventy now stand, and of these seventy hardly seven are in proper repair. Who can tell how many hundreds of thousands of the