This paper contributes to a growing literature on state capacity with reference to the early modern Asian empires. The historiography of these states, and especially the Mughal empire of South Asia, has moved away from an image of unrestrained despotism towards that of a constrained state, but has yet to explore fully what these constraints were and what the state did to overcome them. Using a new dataset on conflicts in Mughal South Asia, and an analytical model, the paper shows how forgiving rebel leaders was used as a strategic tool to secure stability, in a setting where high information costs made intermediaries indispensable to the state. The paper also offers some comparison between Asian empires on the role of intermediaries in shaping state constraint and fiscal policies.

中文翻译：

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宽恕的状态：莫卧儿南亚的合作、和解和国家形成（1556-1707）

本文为越来越多关于近代早期亚洲帝国国家能力的文献做出了贡献。这些国家，尤其是南亚莫卧儿帝国的史学，已经从不受约束的专制形象转向受约束的国家形象，但尚未充分探索这些约束是什么以及国家采取了哪些措施来克服它们。该论文利用莫卧儿南亚冲突的新数据集和分析模型，展示了在高信息成本使得中间人对国家不可或缺的环境中，宽容的叛乱领导人如何被用作确保稳定的战略工具。本文还对亚洲帝国之间中介机构在制定国家约束和财政政策方面的作用进行了一些比较。