The imperial revenue was collected by a separate hierarchy of officials. The great provinces were divided into districts, or _sirkars_, in each of which a _Diwan_ was chief financial agent. His office was the _Defter ali_, and his clerks were _Mutasidis_. In lesser districts the collectors were _Amils_ or _Karoris_, the treasurers _Fotadars_. _Karkums_ were appointed to settle disputes and audit accounts. The crown revenue might be farmed out, in areas of a size comparable to the _jagirs_, to officials known as _Zamindars_ or _Talukdars_, who in the days of decline strove to make their position hereditary. In the local unit, or _pargana_, the government was represented by a _Kanungo_, who kept the records of assessments and payments. Akbar took measures also to bring under cultivation waste and abandoned lands, and appointed for this purpose _Karoris_, whose efforts were attended with much success. In the best days the imperial financial officers acted as a check upon the civil and military officials, upholding alike the interests of emperor and common people. Evidence exists, however, that even in the time of Akbar there was financial corruption, and that revenue officials were not lacking who plundered the people and defrauded the emperor. The granting of _jagirs_ to officers and _Rajahs_, of pensions to learned men and others, and of land in full title, free from revenue, for religious foundations seems to have diverted from the royal treasury about two-thirds of the possible land revenue. On the other hand, it has been estimated that the emperor received from customs, tolls, miscellaneous taxes, and presents an amount equal to what he got from the land. Careful calculations have resulted in ascribing to Akbar a revenue of over two hundred million dollars annually, and to Aurangzeb as much as four hundred and fifty million dollars. Suleiman’s revenue would then have been not the tenth part of Akbar’s and Louis XIV’s not the tenth part of Aurangzeb’s. This revenue was expended upon the standing army, the court, the support of learned and religious persons, a series of building operations which were perhaps costly beyond parallel, bountiful gifts at certain seasons, and regular charities. It would appear, farther, that the expenses of the provincial governments were deducted from the imperial land revenue after it had been estimated but before it was paid into the treasury. In spite of the lavish outflow, however, an enormous treasure seems to have been accumulated. By Mandelslo it was estimated in 1638 at the incredible sum of one and a half billion crowns, equivalent to about the same number of dollars!