DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

368 STRUCTURE OF VIJAYNAGAR EMPIRE [10.2
What remained unchanged was that the workers had to continue
producing a heavier surplus for those who expropriated it.
The position of trade and commodity production in feudalism from
below may be seen by a glance at the structure of the Vijayanagar empire.
The major chiefs (of Seringapatam, Bankapur, Gersoppa, Calicut,
Bhatkal, Bakanur) were virtually independent, except that they had to
pay regular cash tribute, and to maintain a fixed quota each of armed
forces. The center, on the other hand, had to be strong enough to
collect the tribute, for the feudatory contingents would be turned
against a weak emperor while almost every little Nayak then tried to
become a raja. Therefore, the emperor — like the Delhi sultans — had to
administer a certain domain personally, as if he were himself the
greatest of the barons. The revenues and their convertibility into gold
depended upon heavy trade, with control of the ports. This too was
true of Delhi, where the Lodi sultans had to revert to collecting their
assessments in kind whenever the ports of Gujarat and Bengal were
not in their possession, and the supply of bullion consequently cut off.
The last toll-gate (at Hospet) on the great road from the west-coast
ports to the capital at Vijayanagar was farmed out for 12 ? 000 pardaos
a year. The great adjacent tank and its waterworks brought in another
20,000; the rest of the annual revenue of that locality amounted to
less than 10,000 pardaos, Moreover, a good deal of this gain was
counteracted by royal hoarding (as Marco Polo noted of the Pandyas),
which prevented the deposited treasure of any king from being
unsealed by his successors. Too little of the revenue found its way back
into useful circulation through the .construction of essential works
like reservoirs and canals. The temples added nothing to progress in
spite of their separate, considerable revenues from royal endowments
and the harlot-dancing-girls. The ruin of Vijayanagar in 1565 was a
great disaster for the Portuguese, who had a monopoly of the most
lucrative portion of that trade, namely the import of horses and bullion,
against the export of fine cloth and spices. The, Muslims had always
been rivals and enemies of the Portuguese on the high seas, and for
mastery of the ports (including Goa), so that trade with them was