Shivaji Maharaj policy regarding agriculture
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The share of the state as a revenue in agriculture product...
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The whole Shivaji life was spent in battles wars & fights earlier to extend the kingdom or to earn money meet expenses of administration or raising & expanding army. He preferred to invade the surrounding areas of his kingdom belonging to the Mughals or the Adilshah of Bijapur to raise necessary funds but he never imposed heavy taxes on his Subjects.Whenever ,he can short of funds he ransacked the territory bu never exploited his people.He wanted to reduce the financial burden of his people therefore he never imposed heavy taxes on them.The major source of income for his state was the booty & tributes which he got from a number of battles he fought.He will deal with the boty & tributes that he received from other & his enemies.
The Booty & Tributes
The main source of income to state of Shivaji Maharaj was booty & tribute, which he got from the battles and wars he fought. The Victory over Afzalkhan brought great wealth to Shivaji defeat of Afzalkhan , made him available 65 elephants ,4000 best Arabic Horses ,1200 camels & jwellery of Rs.3 lakhs .He also got 2000 bals of rich clothes of rupees seven lakhs in cash. In addition he got cannons, guns & weapons of all types including thousands of tents. It was greatful wealth to Swaraj. Shivaji Maharaj always need of funds for building his nation. His state emerged out of nothing. Therefore need for funds was always there. Until 1674 he was not a crowded king & therefore he could not impose taxes on people to raise funds to meet ever increasing expenditure of the state. Building army and strengthening of defenses needed funds therefore he plundered enemy territories to raise funds.
This was reason behind plundering the rich city Surat besides, he wanted to give fitting reply to the Mughals who were not only Plundering in his kingdom but also did atrocities on the rytos. The Mughals never spared anyone from their onslaught ,But Shivaji Maharaj never harassed common People or the poor ,children & women. He demanded amount of ransom or tribute from the rich & merchants. If they refused lTo pay him the only he used force & looted their establishments.The attack on Surat was enormous .IT valued at one core.The second attack on Surat valued at rupees 75 lakhs along with gold silver .The Maratha army also found rich furniture in city of Surat. The second attack on Surat proved to be death blow to the rich city ,The Mughals failed to protect it.In Addition with this ,the marchants raided Bahadurkhan’s camp at Pedgaon & collected a Booty of Rupees on crore in cash and 200 Horses. Marchants got ¼ of the collection revenue from the Portuguese.
Land Revenue
Land revenue was the major source of public oncome after the booty & tribute.It was referd as Rajbhag i.e share of the king.The share of the state as land Revenue in agriculture produce was fixed at 2/5 of produce or one third 1/3 part of the value of the produce at market prices.
Under the rule of Shivaji Maharaj the system surveying of land was charged. One of his Peshwa name Annaji Datto was appointed to survey land in the state & decide upon the land revenue. In case of dry land rate of land revenue was not fixed per bigha but on the value of the produce. This was the benefit the cultivator because if, the rate of the land revenue was fixed as per bigha the cultivator was required to pay land revenue. It would mean exploitation of cultivator. To fix the rate of land revenue an average of 3 years oncome was considered & then rate was fixed.In beginning the rate of land revenue was fixe 33 percents of total income but later on it was 40 percents. The agriculture tax was colledted regularly. The Hawaldar of the village & Patil was responsible person to collect total revenue of the village. The account book collection will be submitted to Deshmukh.
Taxation
The third source of the income to the Maratha state was king imposed various taxes from time to time.
Government Dues
Deduction from income of various hereditary officials Pargana was also a tax income .This tax was named as Inampatti ,Miraspatti ,Deshmukhpatti & Sardeshmukhpatti.
Professional Tax
Tel Patti , Sarafpatti, Vethbegari & HejibPatti.
Indirect Taxes
Among all the indirect taxes custom duties occupied the prome place.It was like exports & imports,caul,Dhabol ,Vengurla,Rajpur & Rtanagiri were the chief ports of Shivaji Maharaj which were bussy with import & export goals.Along woth export duties a transit duty was imposed on foreign goods traveling through Shivaji Maharaj’s state.The custom duty i.e Jacket was the main & important item of state revenue.
Shivaji Maharaj received a number of valuable gifts & presents
From his subordinates,kings & envoys.It also formed the income of the state.
Another important source of income was judical fees & fines imposes on the criminals & law breakers.
A small income was earned from mints & coins ,a license was issued & the license had to pay a certain percentage of coin minted.
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