After more than a century of conquest and territorial expansion the Mughal emperor, Aurangazeb, possessed enormous resources. At the heart of Mughal finance was the revenue system which taxed agricultural production and urban trade. By the end of seventeenth century, the rural society was entered into a quickening process of change. For the century under review the rural economy of Mughal India prospered. The Mughal revenue system was biassed in favor of higher value cash crops like indigo, cotton, sugar-cane, tree-crops, or opium. Over time the stability of the Mughal agrarian system strengthened the contractual position of zamindars at all levels. During the seventeenth century economic growth in Mughal India was stimulated by the growing importance of a new, external connection: the link between Mughal India and early modern Europe. A recent analysis concludes that the Dutch trade, which primarily imported precious metals, caused a real increase in Bengal's output and income.

This chapter surveys agrarian relations in Mughal India, with an examination of the nature and magnitude of 'land revenue' (māl, kharāj), since it accounted for the larger part of the agricultural surplus of the country. Under Akbar, the ɀabt system, which simplified the process of assessment very greatly, though much depended on the accuracy with which the standard cash rates were fixed for each locality, practically covered the entire region from the Indus to the Ghaghra. With the land revenue accounting for the bulk of the surplus agricultural produce, the assignment of the larger portion of the empire in jāgīrdārs meant placing in the hands of a numerically very small class control over much of the GNP of the country. The role assigned to the zamīndārs in the Mughal revenue system tended to blur the barriers. The zamīndārs often claimed to derive their right from settling a villag.

The economic activities of the Mughal empire derived from the basic urges which created and sustained it as well as the structure of polity devised for their fulfilment. Welfare of the peasantry was a basic norm of policy, though the nature of the Mughal state and its ruling class inevitably induced a persistent tendency to deviate. Rural society in Mughal India was not an undifferentiated mass of pauperized peasants. The Mughal state and the nobility invested a part of their income in the infrastructure. Perhaps the most wasteful economic activity of the Mughal ruling class was their practice of hoarding up immense treasures. In matters of taxation, beside the jiziya, the incidence of which varied according to one's wealth and income, Hindu traders paid duties at the rate of five percent while Muslims paid two and half percent. The Mughal policy towards trade and traders reveals a peculiar contradiction built into the structure of the empire.