ECONOMIC POLICY OF SHIVAJI MAHARAJ
A Modern State has a countless number of
source of income such as taxation, fees, prices, special
assessments, public loans, fine, penalties & grants etc. In fact
as the economies continue to grow their needs also grow. Hence need
for making financial resources available is also felt .In this
respect the modern states are fortunate because they can tap a
number of resources and meet their requirements without much
difficulty.
But this was not the situation in the 17th century
when Shivaji Maharaj , the great ruled.In those days the stats had
to depend upon their own sources of income howsoever they were
limited. Therefore they had to face a number of difficulties &
hurdles. Shivaji Maharaj
state was no
exception to it. It was newly born small state with limited
resources. Shivaji Maharaj had to toil & use his skill as an
administrator to utilize these available scare resources for the
upliftment of his subjects. He always faces this problem ,the
problem of resources ,He had many ideas in his mind but he could not
embody them due to Paucity of funds & revenue.
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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