COLONIMJZATION OF INDIAN ECONOMY 2") revenue in cash by peasants) was quite general in India;9 and that sales of zamindaris were quite common.l ° A considerable degree of stratification existed within the peasantry. 11 The village was usually the unit of assessment of land revenue; and the upper strata of the peasants [muqaddnm^ and the like), often shading off into small zamindars, imposed vaiious rates on tlie peasants below them, in order to make up the revenue demanded from the whole village, l This together with a financial pool for 'village expenses' and certain customary payments to village artisans and seivants, formed the basis of the , village community.12 It seems that rather than being the self-sufficient I republic, conceived of by Marx,73 the Indian village community \va^ a \ mec hanism of subsidiary exploitation of the lower strata of tlie peasantry and the village labourers by the upper strata. The ruling class, and perhaps the zamindars as well, found this system quite convenient, since by permitting an unequal distiibution of the revenue burden, tlicy ensured its fuller collection. Beneath the peasantry, a laige rural proletariat was to be found, largely consisting of the menial and untouchable cartes. The zamindars and the upper peasants had their farms or Umd-kashLa holdings cultivated. by labourers, who were paid wages in cash as well as grain, and \\ho inj some areas, like parts of Bihar and southern India, were held in condi-1 lions of semi-bondage.14 J II ? Tribute from Conquest This was the kind of economy of which the English became master? in Bengal and southern India during the decade and a half following the middle of tlie eighteenth centurv. Thev stepped into the shoes of the sovereign power by virtue of acquisition of diwam in Bengal and jagirs in the Northern Gircars and elesewhere. The legal forms which concealed these conquests are not material except in so far as they provided rationalization for the main acquisition, the power to levy and collect land revenue and other taxe9. The East India Company, which obtained tills power, was controlled by the great merchant-capitalists of tlie City of London. These merchants had so far conducted a trade, bised on the import of Indian piecegoods (muslin, calico, chintz), silk, indigo and spices, that w^s financed mainlv by the export of treasure. Now, suddenh, they found in their conquests the ultimate bliss that every merchant dreams of to be able to buy without liaving to pay, and vetj be able to sell at the full price. This could be achieved by treating the entire revenues of the country as gross profit^. From these the expenses necessary for maintaining government and army, and law and order—the costs of maintenance of the existing system of exploitation—had to b" deducted in order to } icid the net profits. These could, in turn, be invested for the purchase of