Bankrolling Empire

Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India

Sudev Sheth

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2023
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009330244
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

By the 1660s, the mighty Mughal Empire controlled the Indian subcontinent and impressed the world with its strength and opulence. Yet hardly two decades would pass before fortunes would turn, Mughal kings and governors losing influence to rival warlords and foreign powers. How could leaders of one of the most dominant early modern polities lose their grip over empire? Sudev Sheth proposes a new point of departure, focusing on diverse local and hitherto unexplored evidence about a prominent financier family entrenched in bankrolling Mughal elites and their successors. Analyzing how four generations of the Jhaveri family of Gujarat financed politics, he offers a fresh take on the dissolution of the Mughal empire, the birth of princely successor states, and the nature of economic life in the days leading up to the colonial domination of India.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Imprints page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• A Note on Translations, Transliterations, and Dates
• Acknowledgments
• Mughal Family Tree
• Jhaveri Family Tree
• Gaekwad Family Tree
• Haribhakti Family Tree
• Introduction
• 1 Prelude: The Mughal Empire, 1526-1750
• 2 Courtly Mutualism: The Emperor's Jeweler Shantidas Jhaveri, 1628-58
• 3 Political Commensalism: Manekchand Jhaveri and Bankrolling Bids to the Throne, 1658-1707
• 4 Interlude: Cultivating Financial Crisis under Aurangzeb, 1660s-1719
• 5 Expedient Extortion: The Governor's Golden Goose Khushalchand Jhaveri, 1719-30
• 6 Competitive Coparcenary: Vakhatchand Jhaveri and Brokering Politics, 1730-1818
• 7 Postlude: Bankrollers of Mughal Succession, 1750-1818
• Conclusion
• Appendix A Selected Verses from Cintamai Prasasti?
• Appendix B First Farman of Aurangzeb Repaying Loans to the Jhaveris upon Becoming Emperor
• Appendix C Second Farman of Aurangzeb Extending Imperial Protection to the Jhaveris
• Appendix D Mughal Farmans and Other Royal Orders in Gujarat Related to Shantidas Jhaveri and Other Major Groups
• Appendix E Ijara of village Shankheshwar Granted to Shantidas Jhaveri by Shah Jahan for 1,050 Rupees Per Year
• Appendix F Selected Verses from Samal Bhatt's Rustam no Saloko
• Appendix G Account Summary of Tribute Owed and Paid by the Gaekwads of Baroda to the Peshwa Authority at Pune between 1770 and 1798
• Appendix H Debts Discharged and Acquired by the Gaekwads, 1803-7
• Appendix I Gaekwad Debts to the Haribhakti firm by 1818-19
• Appendix J Gaekwad Villages Sequestered to Creditors through British Colonial Administrator John Malcolm by 1830
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index