Richard Craddock's Career with the East India Company - Man Family

4
All the writers of the time
extol the splendour of his
court, the liberality of his
rule, and his personal
popularity. At the same time
they do not conceal the fact
that this splendid facade hid a
crumbling interior. Such
extravagant expenditure was a
crushing burden upon the
resources of the country while
the venality of the officials,
and the tyrannical caprice of
the local governors, added to
the misery of the people, who
had little or no means of
obtaining redress. Foreign
merchants suffered in like
manner from the greed of those
in authority, and Craddock
himself was to write on the
subject as we have noted above.
[The illustration left is of Shah Jahan directing his
troops.]
There was, moreover, an ominous cloud hanging over the
Emperor and his subjects. This was the question of the
succession, always a troublesome one in oriental states,
and particularly so in the Mogul Empire. Shah Jahan had
revolted against his father, Jahangir; and now it was his
turn to see his sons dispute the succession even in his own
lifetime.
He was at the time we
meet Craddock over
sixty years of age and
in weak health; and it
was notorious that
each of the four
princes was on the
watch to secure the
throne for himself.
The Emperor had done
his best to prevent
their rivalries from
breaking into open
warfare by separating