India at the Death of Akbar: An economic study

India’s fabulous wealth was a constant refrain in the narratives of European travelers of the 16-17th centuries. Was India so rich? Even a cursory reading of India’s political history of that period shows-wars were common;nobles and rulers squandered their income; ostentation and not thrift was the ideal of the day; there was more of consumption, and less of production; the lawlessness on the highways, the administrative corruption and rapacity of tax-collectors discouraged commerce and industry; the rulers did not evince any interest in maritime trade. Yet the foreign merchants came. Why? W.H.Moreland’s India at the death of Akbar tries to find the answers to this enigma. The text in eight chapters and the four appendices provides a wealth of information. The study is based on the accounts of English, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The fact that the author has focused attention on the quantitative aspects of production, consumption, distribution, exports, imports and shipping in terms of tonnage adds to the interest of the work. Historians, economists, social scientists and others will find this work extremely useful in their pursuits.