Akbar had an especial interest in artillery, and with it a particular
gift for the technique and great skill in mechanical matters. He
invented a cannon which could be taken apart to be carried more easily
on the march and could be put up quickly, apparently for use in
mountain batteries. By another invention he united seventeen cannons
in such a way that they could be shot off simultaneously by one
fuse.[14] Hence it is probably a sort of _mitrailleuse_. Akbar is
also said to have invented a mill cart which served as a mill as well
as for carrying freight. With regard to these inventions we must take
into consideration the possibility that the real inventor may have
been some one else, but that the flatterers at the court ascribed them
to the Emperor because the initiative may have originated with him.

[Footnote 14: Noer, I, 429. The second invention, however, is
questioned by Buchwald.]

(II, 372) because of the so-called "organ cannons" which were
in use in Europe as early as the 15th century.

The details which I have given will suffice to show what perfection
the military and civil administration attained through Akbar's
efforts. Throughout his empire order and justice reigned and a
prosperity hitherto unknown. Although taxes were never less oppressive
in India than under Akbar's reign, the imperial income for one year
amounted to more than $120,000,000, a sum at which contemporary Europe
marveled, and which we must consider in the light of the much greater
purchasing power of money in the sixteenth century.[15] A large part
of Akbar's income was used in the erection of benevolent institutions,
of inns along country roads in which travelers were entertained at the
imperial expense, in the support of the poor, in gifts for pilgrims,