The following entries in the Bengal accounts for 1858-59 will exemplify the application of Sayer in the more recent times of its maintenance:—
| Under Bengal, Behar and Orissa: | |||
| Sale of Trees and Sunken Boats | Rs. 555 | 0 | 0 |
| Under Pegu and Martaban Provinces: | |||
| Fisheries | Rs. 1,22,874 | 0 | 2 |
| Tax on [Birds' nests] (q.v.) | 7,449 | 0 | 0 |
| T"x on Salt | 43,061 | 3 | 10 |
| Fees for fruits and gardens | 7,287 | 9 | 1 |
| Tax on Bees' wax | 1,179 | 8 | 0 |
| Do. Collections | 8,050 | 0 | 0 |
| Sale of Government Timbers, &c. | 4,19,141 | 12 | 8 |
| 6,09,043 | 1 | 9 | |
| Under the same: | |||
| Sale proceeds of unclaimed and confiscated Timbers, | Rs. 146 | 11 | 10 |
| Net Salvage on Drift Timbers | 2,247 | 10 | 0 |
| 2,394 | 5 | 10 | |
c. 1580.—"Sāīr az Gangāpat o aṭrāf-i-Hindowi waghaira ..." i.e. "Sayer from the Ganges ... and the Hindu districts, &c.... 170,800 dams."—Āīn-i-Akbarī, orig. i. 395, in detailed Revenues of Sirkar Jannatābād or Gaur; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 131].
1751.—"I have heard that Ramkissen Seat who lives in Calcutta has carried goods to that place without paying the Muxidavad Syre chowkey ([choky]) duties."—Letter from Nawāb to Prest. Ft. William, in Long, 25.
1788.—"Sairjat.—All kinds of taxation besides the land-rent. Sairs.—Any place or office appointed for the collection of duties or customs."—The Indian Vocabulary, 112.
1790.—"Without entering into a discussion of privileges founded on Custom, and of which it is easier to ascertain the abuse than the origin, I shall briefly remark on the Collections of Sayer, that while they remain in the hands of the Zemindars, every effort to free the internal Commerce from the baneful effects of their vexatious impositions must necessarily prove abortive."—Minute by the Hon. C. Stuart, dd. Feb. 10, quoted by Lord Cornwallis in his Minute of July 18.
" "The Board last day very humanely and politically recommended unanimously the abolition of the Sayr.
"The statement of Mr. Mercer from Burdwan makes all the Sayr (consisting of a strange medley of articles taxable, not omitting even Hermaphrodites) amount only to 58,000 Rupees...."—Minute by Mr. Law of the Bd. of Revenue, forwarded by the Board, July 12.
1792.—"The [Jumma] on which a settlement for 10 years has been made is about (current Rupees) 3,01,00,000 ... which is 9,35,691 Rupees less than the Average Collections of the three preceding Years. On this Jumma, the Estimate for 1791-2 is formed, and the Sayer Duties, and some other extra Collections, formerly included in the Land Revenue, being abolished, accounts for the Difference...."—Heads of Mr. Dundas's Speech on the Finances of the E.I. Company, June 5, 1792.
1793.—"A Regulation for re-enacting with alterations and modifications, the Rules passed by the Governor General in Council on 11th June and 28th July, 1790, and subsequent dates, for the resumption and abolition of Sayer, or internal Duties and Taxes throughout Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa," &c. "Passed by the Governor General in Council on the 1st May, 1793...."—Title of Regulation, XXVII. of 1793.