But while the average Mughal farmer produced more than in later times, he most probably produced less than in earlier times. On the whole, the Mughal period was marked by agricultural stagnation, if not slump. The per capita yield was declining, and the average man in Mughal India probably had less to eat than before. 'The surplus income left to the peasant was tending to decrease, where it had not already vanished,' says Moreland. 'The provinces,' says Pelsaert, 'are so impoverished that a jagir which is reckoned to be worth 50,000 rupees, may sometimes not yield even 25,000, although so much is wrung from the peasants, that even dry bread is scarcely left to fill their stomachs.'
