In the Mughal period, Akbar’s era was the most prosperous one. Emperor Akbar and Shahjahan are still considered as one of the wealthiest rulers in world history.
Emperor Akbar had a minister named ‘Abul Fazal’ who has mentioned the glory and wisdom of Akbar’s time in his book ‘Aain-e-Akbari’.
Let’s take a look at some of the royal expenses and salary Emperor Akbar offered:
Magnificent Expenditures
Akbar’s total income was nine crore rupees in the year 1595. It was the 39th year of his rule. The total expense of the royal family was 77 lacs rupees. Still, 75 lacs rupees were left in the royal treasure.
According to the book, the average expense of an ordinary person that time was 2 rupees per month. So you can calculate how rich Akbar was.
How much Birbal one of the unique aides was paid:
Birbal was one of Akbar’s ‘Navratnas.’ According to the book ‘Ek Hazari Mansabdaar’ he used to get 8200 (silver) rupees per month, but Birbal was ‘Do Hazari Mansabdaar,’ so he used to get 16,400 rupees per month.
Prince Saleem
Saleem was the successor of Akbar. The person on this post used to get 700 silver coins every day. That means, Saleem received whopping 2.58 lacs every month.
Salary Of Pawns
You will not believe the salary Emperor Akbar offered to the lowest army officers. He used to give away 4000 silver coins every year to them. Women working on higher posts also had good salaries. The salary of workers was comparatively low.
Horses And Elephants
Not only Akbar had the pawns army but also a considerable animal’s army. He had thousands of horses in his stables. In the same way, no expense was too high for him to spend on elephants, as they were precious during the war.
He had more than 5 to 6 thousand well-trained elephants in his army.
Shahjahan’s Glory
According to a report in ‘Sunday Tribune’, Shahjahan’s income got a high heap in 1648. It had reached to 21 crore silver rupees.
Apart from this, Jahangir’s property had 7-ton gold, 1116 ton silver, 300 kg pearl and 50 lack carats of diamonds. That time was the peak of prosperity.
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