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1 results

  • 3 - Contractors: Engaging the State

  • Nandini Chatterjee, University of Exeter
  • Book:
    Negotiating Mughal Law
    Published online:
    27 March 2020
    Print publication:
    16 April 2020, pp 113-140
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  • Summary

    This chapter focusses on a prolific subset of bilingual (Persian and Hindi/Rangri) documents within the collection (designated qaul-qarar), which record contracts between individual members of the family and the state (or its jagirdars - 'fief-holders'). The contracts consisted of agreements to collect land-tax and other imposts over a finite period of time, and deposit a certain pre-determined amount into the provincial or noble's household treasury. The chapter uses these contracts and documents recording further transactions based on them, such as sub-renting, selling, standing surety for others, and foreclosures, to demonstrate how the family portfolio was built up by contracting as tax-farmers for the regime and its officials. It also adds details to the landscape of authorities that the protagonists had to contend with in order to benefit from such political-fiscal investments.