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500 acres of wheat could be harvested in two weeks.

The story of agrarian expansion is closely connected to the westward movement of the white settlers who took over the land. After the American War of Independence from 1775 to 1783 and the formation of the United States of America, the white Americans began to move westward. By the time Thomas Jefferson became the President of the USA in 1800, over700,000 white settlers had moved into Appalachian plateau through the passes.

indigo and opium

President Wilson

The Emperor had forbidden its production and sale except for medicinal purposes

1. The history of opium production in India was linked up with the story of British trade with China. The English East India Company was buying tea and silk from China for sale in England. As tea became a popular English drink, tea trade became more and more important. This created a problem.

2. England at this time was producing nothing that could easily be sold in China. How to finance the tea trade? They searched for such a commodity. The Portuguese had introduced opium into China.

3. Western merchants began an illegal trade in opium. While the English cultivated a taste for Chinese tea, the Chinese became addicted to opium.

The Confucian rulers of China were suspicious of all foreign merchants. They felt that these foreigners would meddle in local politics and disrupt their authority.

They feared that the British would interfere in local politics and disrupt their authority.

In the late 18th century, the English East India Company was buying tea and silk from China for sale in England. As tea became a popular English d rink the tea import increased largely. But this created a problem. England at that time produced nothing that could be sold in China. Buying tea with silver coin created loss of treasure from Britain. The Britisher searched a commodity which they could sell in China. Opium was such a commodity. The Chinese were aware of the dangers of opium addiction. The Emperor of China had forbidden its production and sale except for medicinal purpose. But European merchants began an illegal trade in opium. When the British conquered Bengal, they made a determined effort to produce opium in Bengal. Unwilling cultivators were made to produce opium through a system of advances. Large number of poor peasants of Bengal and Bihar started to produce opium. They got very low prices for their product. By 1773, the British Government in Bengal had established a monopoly to trade in opium. As China became a country of opium addicts, British trade in tea flourished. The returns from opium sale financed the tea purchases in China.

1. By 1773, the British Government in Bengal had established a monopoly to trade in opium. No one else was legally permitted to trade in the product.

2. By the 1820s, the British taxed opium production in their territories to make it declining, but it was increasing outside British territories, especially in central India and Rajasthan within princely states, which are not under direct British control.

3. The British tried to stop it. It instructed its agents in princely states to confiscate all opium and destroy the crops. This conflict between the British Government, peasants and local traders continued as long as opium production lasted.

Opium was exported from India to China.

The factors which led to the Enclosure Movement in England were:

(1) Rapid expansion of population from 7 million in 1750 to 21 million in 1850 and 30 million in 1900.

(2) Increased demand for food grains to feed the growing population.

(3) War with France disrupted trade and import of food grains from Europe. Prices in England skyrocketed, encouraging landowners to enclose lands and enlarge the area under grain cultivation. Profits flowed in and landowners pressurised the parliament to pass the Enclosure Acts.

1. Over the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the English countryside changed dramatically.

2. Before this time, in large parts of England the countryside was open. It was not partitioned into enclosed lands privately owned by landlords. It was all open fields and common lands.

3. After the mid-eighteenth century the Enclosure Movement swept through the countryside, changing the English landscape forever. Between 1750 and 1850, 6 million acres of land was enclosed.

1. In 1839, the Chinese Emperor sent Lin-Ze-xu to Canton as a Special Commissioner with instructions to stop the opium trade.

2. After he arrived in Canton in the spring of 1839, Lin arrested 1,600 men involved in the trade and confiscated 11,000 pounds of opium.

3. He forced the factories to hand over their stocks of opium, burnt 20,000 crates of opium and blew the ashes to the wind.

4. When he announced that Canton was closed to foreign trade Britain declared war. China was defeated in the Opium War (1837–42).

5. The Chinese were forced to accept the humiliating terms of the subsequent treaties, legalising opium trade and opening up China to foreign merchants.

Enclosures filled the pockets of the rich landlords. When fences came up the enclosed land become the property of one landowner. The poor could no longer collect apples and berries or hunt small animals for meat, nor could they gather the stalks that lay on the fields after the crop was cut. Everything belonged to the landlord; everything had a price which the poor could not afford to pay. The poor were displaced from the land. They tramped in search of work. From Midlands they moved to the southern countries of England.

1. The coming of modern agriculture in England led to many different changes. The open fields disappeared, and the customary rights of peasants were undermined.

2. The richer farmers expanded grain production, sold this grain in the world market, made profits, and became powerful.

3. The poor left their villages in large numbers. Some went from Midlands to the southern countries where jobs were available, others to the cities. The income of labourers became unstable, their jobs insecure, their livelihoods precarious.

The Manchus were Chinese rulers.

(a) Agriculture: It is the science or practice of farming, i.e. cultivating land for growing crops; keeping animals.

(b) Enclosure: Enclosing land by building hedges around their holdings to separate their land-holdings from that of others is called Enclosure. This deprived poor farmers of using the commons.

(c) Commons: It was land which belonged to the villagers as a whole. Here they pastured their cows and grazed their sheep, collected fuelwood, fruit and berries. They fished in the rivers and ponds and hunted rabbits in the common forests.

1. Modern agriculture in England: Use of threshing machines deprived workmen of their livelihood.

2. Enclosures: These deprived the poor of the use of the commons which was essential for their survival. The Enclosures barred them from pasteurising their cows

3. Collecting fruits and berries, fuel wood, hunting small animals for food etc., cutting of wages by landlords and cutting down of workmen.

All these factors prompted/induced the poor to start the Captain Swing riots.

The poor farmers felt the threshing machines would replace people, would deprive them of their livelihood and render them jobless. Captain Swing was a mythical name used in threatening letters, written by workmen against the use of threshing machines by rich farmers.

Recovery of the pastures and prevention of their overuse.

1.No, there was individual ownership of assets and deep inequities based on caste and gender. 

2.Powerful groups, exploited the weaker sections.

The first reason is Jati. All the Zamindars belonged to the higher caste. The second reason is the services (khidmat) they rendered to the country.

Agriculture was done in two seasons – Spring and Autumn. The Spring crops were called Kharif and the Autumn crops were called Rabi.

The main responsibility of the Village Head was supervising the income and expenditure. A Patwari (accountant) helped him in this duty.

In Eastern India, all marriages were conducted in the presence of the Mandal (Village Head). In other words, he had the responsibility to observe the behaviour of people so that they did not breach the Jati laws.

Mandals often misused their powers. With the help of the Patwari, they often falsified accounts. They showed a lesser income from their property but they charged more from smaller farmers.

1.Land Revenue was the main source of the income. 

2. It consists two stages - (i) Assessment (ii) Actual collection. 

3.Control over agricultural Production and fixation of the tax. 

4.Revenue office - Amil Guzar. 

5.Payment of tax - in cash or crop. 

6.Land measurement and classification of Land. 

7. Tax was fixed as per the quantity of land.

In different communities, men and women played some special roles in the field of production. In the agricultural community Of the Middle Ages, women played an important role. They worked alongside men in the fields. When the men ploughed the land and made furrows, the women sowed the seeds. Later they weeded, harvested and separated the chaff from the grain.

In the Middle Ages, in agricultural communities, all human efforts and resources were used for production. Naturally, there was no gender discrimination here.

Even then women were given some special considerations because of their nature. In Western India, women who were having their periods were not allowed to touch the plough or the potter’s wheel. In Bengal, menstruating women were not allowed into the betel leaf, farms.

Things, like spinning, making the clay ready for pot making, stitching etc., were mainly done by women. With the commercialization of products, the role of women began to increase. Women worked not only in their homes and fields but also in the households of their employers. Sometimes they even went to the market for selling things.

Village communities depended on work for their livelihood. There was a need for more hands to work in the fields. As persons who brought forth children, women were seen as an important group. But the death rate among women was high. Lack of nutrition, regular childbirth, death during delivery, etc. were the reasons for their higher death rate. As a result, there was a considerable reduction in the number of married women.

In the agricultural and artisan communities, this caused the rise of some special social customs. These customs were different from those practised by the upper classes. In some communities, instead of getting a dowry, men started giving bride-price. Laws also permitted remarriage of widows and divorced women.

Women had this importance of being the sources of producing children. Society was worried if their importance would make society lose control over them. By the established social laws, man was the head of the family. The male members of the family and the community imposed strict laws on women. Women who were suspected of cheating were severely punished.

Women could complain to the Panchayat against the misbehaviour of their husbands. From the documents received from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, we can see complaints of women sent to the Grama Panchayats seeking justice. Women protested against their men’s cheating (marital infidelity). They also complained against the negligence of their husbands towards their wives and children. Infidelity of men was not often punished. But the state and the higher communities tried to bring comfort to their families. Generally, names of the complaining women were not written in the Panchayat records. Instead, the complainant was referred to as the mother of a certain person, his sister or his wife.

The condition of the wives of the landowners was much better. They had the right to get ancestral property. In Punjab, women, including widows, were actively involved in the market to sell the properties they received as heritage. Hindu and Muslim women got zamindaris as hereditary property. They had the freedom to sell them or mortgage them. In the 18 century, there were a number of known zamindaris in the name of women in Bengal. One of the biggest and most famous zamindaris, Rajshahi, was in the control of a woman.

The basis of Mughal economy was land. Land tax was the main source of the government’s income. Because of that to ensure that taxes came in, the government appointed a number of officials to assess the land tax and to collect it. The head of the revenue department (Daftar) was Diwan. He supervised the economic system of the Empire. To help the Diwan there was an Amil Guzar (Revenue Collector) and many other officials. These officials went around the villages to ensure that taxes came to the Treasury. They became a Strong power in formulating agricultural relationships with the government.

Before fixing the tax, the state collected all the information regarding the agricultural lands and their products.

There were two stages in the tax system of the Mughals:

Fixing Tax and its actual collection. The first step in the land revenue system is the determination of the amount of tax to be given by the farmer. This amount is called Jama. The collection of the tax is the second stage. The amount collected is known as ‘Hasil’.

Farmers could pay their tax in cash or in goods. The government preferred cash. The government had tried to raise the tax to the maximum. But often it could not collect the fixed tax. Regional circumstances often prevented the government from collecting the entire tax.

Diwan is head of the revenue department during the Mughal period.

The government gave all kinds of support to farmers for irrigation projects. The government took the responsibility of making canals (Nahr and nala) in North India. Old canals were repaired. It was during Shah Jahan’s reign that the Shahnahar Canal in Punjab was repaired. For irrigation, even well water was used Water Was drawn from wells using wheel and bullocks. Babar describes the various methods used in irrigating the land in his memoir ‘Babar-nama’. He points out that people used Persian wheel, bucket and rope to get water from the well.

Agriculture depended on the efforts of people, they also used animal power. There were wooden ploughs in use. Using iron ploughshares on wooden ploughs made it easy to make furrows. But the furrows would not be deep dry grounds. There they used drills They spattered the seed by hand – They, also used an iron blade for digging and weeding.

Forest Dwellers

Answer is  Milkiyat

It means perfect crops. It referred to cash crops. Since they brought income to the country, Mughal rulers encouraged farmers of cash crops. The most important jins-i-kamil were cotton and sugar cane. Cotton was cultivated in Central. India and the highlands of Deccan. Bengal was famous for sugar cane. Pulses and oil seeds like mustard also were considered cash crops. It shows there was mixture of food crops and cash crops in the country.

This was a special feature of the Mughal rule. It was Akbar who put it into operation, It is a system which joined the civil and military positions. Mansab means status or position. The official who got the position of mansab is called mansabdar. Akbar gave all officials this status. These officials were to keep a certain number of cavalrymen under them. Thus Akbar was able to combine civil and military duties in an official. Some mansabdars were given money as their salary. But many were assigned lands in place of money. These lands were called jagirs. From these jagirs, the mansabdars could collect taxes equal to the amount of their salary. Mansabdars were frequently transferred.

Akbar brought mansabdari system

Khud Kashta had their own farm lands in the village. They stayed there permanently and did agricultural work. In short, they are permanent dwellers in the village. Pahi Kashta did not have lands of their own. They did agricultural work on a contract basis. They did not do agricultural work permanently or stay permanently in the village.

‘Muzarian’ mean Farmers

1. Panchayat was headed by a headman. 

2. Panchayat derived its funds from contributions made by individuals. 

3. Entertaining revenue officials who visited the village. 

4. Community welfare. 

5.Ensure the caste boundaries 

6.To oversee the conduct of the member of the village community. 

7.Authority to levy fines and give punishment.

Village head

The king that banned tobacco Jehangir

1.Excess of land. 

2. Availability of labourers.

3. Irrigation facilities.

They refers to two kinds of peasants-

Khud-Kashta - were residents of the Village in which they held their land. 

Pahi-Kashta - were nonresident cultivators.

Because it was the main source of income of the empire.

i.Ain-i-Akbari 

ii.Accounts of foreign travellers. 

iii. Records of British India.

1.They worked with men in the field 

2.Women sowed, weeded and threshed the harvest. 

3. Spinning yarn, making clay, pottery, embroidery

1. Zamindars did not directly participate in the process of agricultural production but they enjoyed high status in the society. 

2. They hold their personal lands. They could sell the land. 

3. They enjoyed many social and economic privileges. 

4. They belonged to the upper caste. 

5. They rendered certain services to the state. 

6. They had right to collect revenue. 

7. The Zamindars had kept control over the military resources.

8. Important role in developing the agricultural land. 

9. Highest position in the society. 

1.Introduced during Akbar's period. 

2. All holders of government offices held rank (Mansabs) comprisingof two numerical designations. 

(i) Zat (Position & Salary) 

(ii) Sawar - Number of Horseman he required. 

Merits - 

1. Qualification as based of rank. 

2. Forceful army. 

3. Good on revolts. 

4. Ban on corruption. 

Demerits -

(i) Luxurious life. 

 (ii) Misuse of money 

(iii) Loyalty of the soldiers.

Polaj, Parauti, Chachar, Banjar.

1.Because it provides glimpses of Mughals Empire. 

2. Valuable information about the political events of the time. 

3. Information about country, people, products. 

4. Information about various customs and Practices literacy, religious tradition. 

5. Information about Mughals provinces.

Raiyat, Muzarian, Khud Kashta and Pahi Kashta.