Battle of Plassey23 June 1757,

The power the East India Company had obtained by bribing the Government, as did also the Bank of England, it was forced to maintain by bribing again. At every epoch when its monopoly was expiring, it could only effect a renewal of its Charter by offering fresh loans and by fresh presents made to the Government.

The events of the Seven-Years-War transformed the East India Company from a commercial into a military and territorial power . It was then that the foundation was laid of the present British Empire in the East. Then East India stock rose to £263, and dividends were then paid at the rate of 12 1/2 per cent.

The Seven Years' War Anglo- French Wars, was a global military war between 1756 and 1763 affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines. The war is alternatively named after the respective theaters: the Anglo -French Indian War , North America, 1754–63 , Pomeranian War (Sweden and Prussia, 1757–62), Third Carnatic War 1757–63), and Third Silesian War (Prussia and Austria, 1756–63). the war was largely prosecuted by Pitt the Elder as PM & in other capacities.

The union between the Constitutional Monarchy and the monopolizing monied interest, between the Company of East India and the “glorious” revolution of 1688[* was fostered by the same force by which the liberal interests and a liberal dynasty have at all times and in all countries met and combined, by the force of corruption, that first and last moving power of Constitutional Monarchy, the guardian angel of William III and the fatal demon of Louis Philippe.

So early as 1693, it appeared from Parliamentary inquiries, that the annual expenditure of the East India Company, under the head of “gifts” to men in power, which had rarely amounted to above £1,200 before the revolution, reached the sum of £90,000. The Duke of Leeds was impeached for a bribe of £5,000, and the virtuous King himself convicted of having received £10,000. Besides these direct briberies, rival Companies were thrown out by tempting Government with loans of enormous sums at the lowest interest, and by buying off rival Directors

* Bill of Rights 1689 - Establishing Constitutional Monarchy

But then,appeared a new enemy to the Company, no longer in the shape of rival societies, but in the shape of rival ministers and of a rival people.

The ministers of the day and the people of the day claimed their share in the “wonderful treasures” …. won by the last conquestsThe Company only saved its existence by an agreement made in 1767 that it should annually pay £400,000 into the National Exchequer

http://www.the-eastindiacompany.org/Introduction.html

Today Bangladesh is often described as one of the poorest countries in the world. Its pre-colonial past reputation was very different indeed. In fact Robert Clive, who benefitted by making the conquered country’s treasury dry soon after the Battle of Plassey, tried to justify his actions on the grounds that Bengal was known to be one of the richest places in the world, attracting people from England and other countries to seek their fortunes. By this he tried to lessen the impact of his own gain, which was at that time under question.

 ... The country of Bengal is called, by way of distinction, the paradise of the earth. It not only abounds with the necessariesof life to such a degree, as to furnish a great part of India with its superfluity, but it abounds in very curious and valuable manufactures, sufficient not only for its own use, but for the use of the whole globe. The silver of the west and the gold of the east have for many years been pouring into that country, and goods only have been sent out in return. This has added to the luxury and extravagance of Bengal.

… Let us for a moment consider the nature of the education of a young man who goes to India. The advantages arising from the Company’s service are now very generally known; and the great object of every man is to get his son appointed a writer to Bengal; which is usually at the age of 16. His parents and relations represent to him how certain he is of making a fortune; that my lord such a one, and my lord such a one, acquired so much money in such a time; and Mr. such a one, and Mr. such a one, so much in such a time. Thus are their principles corrupted at their very setting out, and as they generally go a good many together,they inflame one another’s expectations to such a degree, in the course of the voyage, that they fix upon a period for their return before their arrival.

(Horn, D.B. and Ransome, M., (editors), English Historical Documents, 1714-1783 (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1957), pp. 809-811)

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The corruption in the East India Company remained, however, and the Company appealed to the British government to save it from bankruptcy. In 1772, Clive was forced to defend himself before Parliament. Although exonerated, he committed suicide on 22 November 1774. It was during his defence that he delivered the following famous lines: ‘Consider the situation in which the Victory of Plassey had placed on me. A great Prince was dependent upon my pleasure; an opulent city lay at my mercy; its richest bankers bid against each other for my smiles; I walked through vaults which were thrown open to me alone, piled on either hand with gold and jewels!

By God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation.’

By God, Mr. Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation.’

By 1773 the East India Company was in dire financial straits and asked for assistance from the British Government. Faced with corruption and nepotism amongst the company officials in India, the British Government enacted the Regulating Act in 1773 to control the activities of the East India Company. The Act set up a system whereby it supervised (regulated) the work of the East India Company but did not take power for itself. The Act had proven to be a failure within a few years and the British government decided to take a more active role in the affairs of the company.

15 FAMINES UNDER BRITISH RULE

http://pazhayathu.blogspot.com/2010/05/15-famines-under-british-rule-indians.html

Famine in India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_India#British_rule

YEARS Famines EffectNo of years

1770 to 1800 4 8

1800 to 1825 5 9

1825 to 1850 2 4

1850 to 1875 6 12

1875 to 1900 18 25

1900 to 1925 1 2

1925 to 1947 1 9

Total 40 69 years plus

British era (1770–1947)Century

11th 2

12th 0

13th 1

14th 3

15th 2

16th 3

17th 3

18th up to 1745 4

total 14 all local

FAMINES! STARVE THE MASSES TO GAIN CONTROL AND MAKE MONEY BY EXPORT OF GRAINS

Amartya Sen:- “……there is absolutely no historical account of any major famine in Bengal prior to the arrival of British in Bengal." "Most academic debates about Bengal Famine have missed the most essential aspect - criminal act of the British Government"“Bengal was a victim of a criminal act perpetrated for more than one and three quarters of a century. British establishment indulged in brutal genocide in Bengal, at times to further their own interests and at other times out of sheer negligence of their duties. In either case, the British Government stands guilty of the worst crime in recent human history.”The Holocaust in Germany was a minor event compared to what the British did to a people, who trusted them and were loyal to them. Nazis have been accused and convicted of the Holocaust in Germany.

Bengal famine 1769 -73As a trading body, the first remit of the company was to maximise its profits and with taxation rights, the profits to be obtained from Bengal came from land tax as well as trade tariffs. As lands came under company control, the land tax was typically raised fivefold what it had been – from 10% to up to 50% of the value of the agricultural produce. In the first years of the rule of the British East India Company, the total land tax income was doubled and most of this revenue flowed out of the country. As the famine approached its height in April 1770, the Company announced that the land tax for the following year was to be increased by a further 10%.

Sushil Chaudhury writes that the destruction of food crops in Bengal to make way for opium poppy cultivation for export reduced food availability and contributed to the famine. The company is also criticised for ordering the farmers to plant indigo instead of rice, as well as forbidding the "hoarding" of rice. This prevented traders and dealers from laying in reserves that in other times would have tided the population over lean periods.By the time of the famine, monopolies in grain trading had been established by the company and its agents.

BRITISH GREEDBengal famine 1769 -73 [ TEA ACT 1773]

WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCEThe company had no plan for dealing with the grain shortage, and actions were only taken insofar as they affected the mercantile and trading classes. Land revenue decreased by 14% during the affected year, but recovered rapidly.

According to McLane, the first governor-general of British India, Warren Hastings, acknowledged "violent" tax collecting after 1771: revenues earned by the Company were higher in 1771 than in 1768. Globally, the profit of the company increased from fifteen million rupees in 1765 to thirty million in 1777.

Nevertheless, the company continued to suffer financially, and influenced Parliament to pass the Tea Act in 1773 to lift import duties on tea shipped to the American colonies, which ultimately lead to the American War of Independence in April 1775

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1770

The Imperial Farman

Clive secured from the Emperor of Delhi one of the most important documents in British history in India, effectively granting title of Bengal to Clive. It appears in the records as "firmaund from the King Shah Aalum, granting the dewany of Bengal, Behar and Orissa to the Company 1765." The date was 12 August 1765, the place Benares, the throne an English dining-table covered with embroidered cloth and surmounted by a chair in Clive's tent. It is all pictured by a Muslim contemporary, who indignantly exclaims that so great a "transaction was done and finished in less time than would have been taken up in the sale of a jackass". By this deed the Company became the real sovereign rulers of thirty million people, yielding a revenue of four millions sterling.

On the same date Clive obtained not only an imperial charter for the Company's possessions in the Carnatic, completing the work he began at Arcot, but a third firman for the highest of all the lieutenancies of the empire, that of the Deccan itself. This fact is mentioned in a letter from the secret committee of the court of directors to the Madras government, dated 27 April 1768. The British presence in India was still tiny compared to the number and strength of the princes and people of India, but also compared to the forces of their ambitious French, Dutch and Danish rivals. Clive had this in mind when he penned his last advice to the directors, as he finally left India in 1767:

Chalisa famine of 1783-84Doji bara famine (Skull famine) of 1791-92

The Doji bara famine (or Skull famine) of 1791-92 in South Asia was brought on by a major El Niño event lasting from 1789 CE to 1795 CE and producing prolonged droughts.[The El Niño event, recorded by William Roxburgh, a surgeon with the British East India Company, in a series of pioneering meteorological observations, caused the failure of the South Asian monsoon for four consecutive years starting in 1789.[

However British policy to divert food to europe, to price the remaining grains Out of reach of native Indians and disastrous agriculture policy destroyed food production. The British had surplus supplies of grain, which was not distributed to the very people that had grown it.