History of Gujarát: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I.Campbell, James M.
History
History of Gujarát: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I.
Campbell, James M.
Gujarat (India) -- History
dues from twenty-five ports on the western coast of India and from
twenty-six foreign marts, some of them in India and others in the
Persian Gulf and along the Arabian coast. [699] The total revenue from
these three sources is said in prosperous times to have amounted to a
yearly sum of £11,460,000 (Rs. 11,46,00,000). Of this total amount the
territorial revenue from the twenty-five districts yielded £5,840,000
(Rs. 5,84,00,000), or slightly more than one-half. Of the remaining
£5,620,000 (Rs. 5,62,00,000) about one-fifth part was derived from
the Dakhan tribute and the rest from customs-dues. [700]
The buildings at Áhmedábád, and the ruins of Chámpáner and Mehmúdábád,
prove how much wealth was at the command of the sovereign and his
nobles, while the accounts of travellers seem to show that the private
expenditure of the rulers was not greater than the kingdom was well
able to bear. The Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa, who was in
Gujarát between A.D. 1511 and A.D. 1514, found the capital Chámpáner a
great city, in a very fertile country of abundant provisions, with many
cows sheep and goats and plenty of fruit, so that it was full of all
things. [701] Áhmedábád was still larger, very rich and well supplied,
embellished with good streets and squares, with houses of stone and
cement. It was not from the interior districts of the province that
the Áhmedábád kings derived the chief part of their wealth, but from
those lying along the coast, which were enriched by manufactures and
commerce. [702] So it was that along the shores of the gulf of Cambay
and southward as far as Bombay the limit of the Gujarát kingdom,
besides many small sea-ports, Barbosa chooses out for special mention
twelve 'towns of commerce, very rich and of great trade.' Among these
was Diu, off the south coast of Káthiáváda, yielding so large a revenue
to the king as to be 'a marvel and amazement.' And chief of all Cambay,
in a goodly, fertile, and pretty country full of abundant provisions;
with rich merchants and men of great prosperity; with craftsmen and
mechanics of subtle workmanship in cotton, silk, ivory, silver, and
precious stones; the people well dressed, leading luxurious lives,
much given to pleasure and amusement. [703]
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