In eighteenth-century South Asia, ‘political’ vakils are familiar to us principally as diplomats, active in the inter-state negotiations of the period. They were unlike their predecessors, the īlchī and hejib of earlier centuries, who were associated with the service of courts and states. Maratha political vakils, like others, worked rather more as the mobile agents of individual rulers. Their activities extended far beyond the diplomatic arena. Since revenue rights were central to many inter-state negotiations, vakils often oversaw arrangements for local-level revenue collection. Frequently acting on behalf of several employers, they also had key roles in the remittance of cash, to meet the costs of their own establishments, to participate in the gift economy of the court, to pay the costs of local mercenaries, and to make down-payments for revenue farms on behalf of their employers. Drawing on support of their own extended families, for whom vakil service was often a profession that extended over several generations and regions, many political vakils combined mobility with deep connections to local economies and societies, sharing some characteristics of the ‘portfolio capitalism’ of the eighteenth century. What distinguished them, though, was their access to subcontinent-wide networks of political intelligence, and their expertise in the ‘soft skills’ of negotiation and persuasion, which further enabled them to exploit local social networks and political institutions. Colonial reforms of the late eighteenth century broke this flexible and entrepreneurial service role apart, dissipating it within the lower levels of colonial bureaucracy. The old figure of the political vakil disappeared, to be replaced by the semi-professional ‘native pleader’ in courts of law, and by ‘munshi’ assistants and translators to the Residents of the princely states within the uncovenanted civil service.

在18世纪的南亚，我们主要以外交官的身份熟悉“政治”庸俗，活跃于该时期的国家间谈判。他们与前几个世纪的前任伊尔奇和赫吉不同，后者与法院和国家的服务有关。马拉塔什的政治庸俗，像其他人一样，更多地充当着各个统治者的流动代理。他们的活动远远超出了外交领域。由于收入权是许多州际谈判的核心，因此往往会疏忽监督地方税收的安排。他们经常代表几位雇主行事，在现金汇款，支付自己机构的费用，参与法院的礼物经济活动，支付当地雇佣兵的费用等方面也发挥着关键作用。并代表雇主为收益农场支付首付款。在他们自己的大家庭的支持下，瓦克尔服务通常是一个跨越几代人和多个地区的职业，许多政治瓦克尔将流动性与与当地经济和社会的深厚联系结合在一起，分享了该国“投资组合资本主义”的某些特征。十八世纪。但是，使他们与众不同的是，他们可以访问次大陆范围的政治情报网络，并且他们在谈判和说服的“软技能”方面具有专长，这进一步使他们能够利用当地的社会网络和政治机构。18世纪后期的殖民地改革打破了这种灵活的企业家服务角色，将其分散在较低的殖民地官僚机构中。