People, Taxation and Trade in Mughal India (Oxford India Paperbacks)

348 Pages·2010·42.535 MB·English

by  Shireen Moosvi

People, Taxation, and Trade in Mughal India
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People, Taxation, and Trade
in Mughal India
Shireen Moosvi
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
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UNIVERS TY OF MICHIGAN
OXFORD
VNIVBRSITY PRBSS
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Contents
.
Preface
XI
Original Sites ofP ublication
Xlll
Abbreviations xv
INTRODUCTION
XVII
THE ECONOMIC EXPERIENCE
1. The Indian Economic Experience, 1600-1900:
A Quantitative Study 1
2. The Silver Influx, Money Supply, Prices and
Revenue-Extraction in Mughal India 35
3. A Note on Interest Rates in the Seventeenth
and Early Eighteenth Centuries 81
ECOLOOY, DEMOORAPHY AND GENDER
4. Ecology, Population Distribution and Settlement
Pattern in Mughal India 89
5. Data on Mughal-Period Vital Statistics
A Preliminary Survey of Usable Infonnation 103
6. Urban Population in Pre-Colonial India 119
7. Work and Gender in Mughal India 135
TAXATION AND IMPERIAL FINANCE
8. Problems of Mughal Revenue Administration
Todannal's Original Memorandum, March 1582 159
9. Refonning Revenue Administration
Aurangzeb's Farmiin to Rasikdas, 1665 175
10. A Programme of Reliefs for the People of
Kashmir: An Imperial Edict of Shahjahan 186
11. Expenditure on Buildings under Shahjahan:
A Chapter of Imperial Financial History 199
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12. The Mughal Empire and the Deccan
Economic Factors and Consequences 213
13. Scarcities, Prices and Exploitation:
'The Agrarian Crisis', 1658-70 229
SHIPPING AND PORTS
14. Shipping and Navigation under Akbar 243
15. Mughal Shipping at Surat in the First Half
of Seventeenth Century 257
16. Travails of a Mercantile Community
Aspects of Social Life at the Port of Surat
(Earlier Half of the Seventeenth Century) 275
17. Gujarat Ports and their Hinterland:
The Economic Relationship 288
Index 297
MAPS
Map 4.l(a): Uttar Pradesh: Extent of Gross Cultivation
in 1595 (As% of Gross Cultivation in 1909-10) 90
Map 4.1 (b) : Gujarat: Extent of Gross Cultivation in 1595
(As o/o of Gross Cultivation in 1903-4) 91
Map 4.1 (c ) : Panjab: Extent of Gross Cultivation in 1595
(As% of Gross Cultivation in 1909-10) 91
Map 4.2: Upper & Middle Gangetic Basin:
Forests & Scrub (Excluding Himalayan
Forests), !Th Century 94
Map 4.3: Upper & Middle Gangetic Basin:
Forests & Scrub (Excluding Himalayan
Forests) 1951 95
Map 4.4: Wild Elephants and Cheetahs c.1600 97
Map 17 .1: Routes into the Hinterland 293
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IX
FIGURES
Fig.2.1: Mughal Rupees (North Indian Mints)
Quinquennial Histogram Based on
U.P. Coin Finds 40
Fig. 2.2: Mughal Rupees (North Indian Mints)
Quinquennial Histogram Based on
catalouged coins (Aziza Hasan) 41
Fig.2.3: The Silver Value of Gold (Rupees per Muhr) 51
Fig.3.1: Interest Rates 82
Fig. 6.1: Circulation of the Rural Surplus 121
Fig.7.1: Women at well; women fetching water from
well. Line-drawing from Hamzanama painting,
Victoria! and Albert Museum, London 139
Fig. 7.2: Woman spinning 143
Fig.7.3: Women breaking stones and seiving material
in lime-making, Fatehpur Sikri 147
Fig.7.4: Women carrying bitumen, construction of
Agra Fort 147
Fig.7.5: A girl at school 153
Fig.7.6: A princess reading a poem 154
Fig.7.7: Women dancers perfonning at a Royal wedding 156
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