NCERT Extracts - Economic and Social Life under the Mughals
Category : UPSC
Economic and Social Life under the Mughals
- Babur was struck by the scanty clothes worn by the ordinary people.
- Ralph Fitch, who came to India towards the end of the 16th century, says that at Banaras "the people go naked save a little cloth bound about their middle."
- The peasants who owned the land they tilled were called Khudkasht.
- Thus during, the 17th century, two new crops were added - tobacco and maize.
- The Mughal state provided incentives and loans (taccavi) to the peasants for expansion and improvement of cultivation.
- Moreland, who wrote in the early part of the 20th century, observed that during the period there was little change in the real wages of workers - they had a more balanced diet but clothes, sugar, etc., were more expensive.
- Q Indian Muslims who were called Shaikhzadas or Hindustani were also given service.
- Mir Jumla, a leading nobleman during the reign of Aurangzeb, owned a fleet of ships which carried extensive commerce with Persia, Arabia and South-East Asia.
- Land grants were called madadd-i-maash in Mughal terminology, or sasan in Rajasthan.
- Gujarat was the entry point of foreign goods. It exported fine textiles and silks (patola) to north India, with Burhanpur and Agra as the two nodal points of trade.
- The hundi was a letter of credit payable after a period of time at a discount.
- Virji Vohra dominated the Surat trade for several decades. He owned a large fleet of ships and was reputed to be amongst the wealthiest men of his time.
- Similarly, Malay Chetti of the Coromandal coast, Kashi viranna and Sunca Rama Chetti were reputed to be extremely wealthy, and had extensive commercial dealings in India and abroad.
- Monserrate, the Jesuit priest who came to Akbar's court, says that Lahore was second to none of the cities in Europe or Asia.
- Bemier says that “gold and silver, after circulating over every part of the world, is finally buried in India which is the sink of gold and silver."
- The indigo found most suitable was that produced at Sarkhej in Gujarat and Bayana near Agra.
- Soon the English developed the export of Indian textiles, called "calicoes", to Europe.
- Another item which was developed was the export of saltpetre which supplemented the European sources for gun powder and which was also used as a ballast for ships going to Europe. The best quality saltpetre was found in Bihar.
