Author Description

Exploring the rich statistical material present in the earliest manuscripts of the Ain-i Akbari—the great official compilation of the Mughal Empire—this book challenges and revises widely held views on the economic conditions of the day. It breaks new ground by subjecting the Indian economy c. 1595 to the same kind of quantitative analysis as is employed in the case of contemporary economics. First published in 1987, this seminal work on the economy of the Mughal empire now appears in its second revised and updated edition, with the addition of a new chapter on GDP. In its extensively revised form, the work is indispensable for anyone interested in the functioning of the economy of the Mughal Empire and its possible capacities for growth. It also provides a basis of comparison with the structure of India's colonial economy in the late nineteenth century, when a comparable range of statistics becomes available.