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Full Description
Revenue and Reform offers a reappraisal of British imperial politics in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. It is traditional to regard the 1760s as a time when British politicians were preoccupied with the crises which eventually led to the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775. Here, for the first time, a different imperial problem - the Indian problem - is examined in detail. Politicians struggled to come to terms with the East India Company's unexpected acquisition of territory and great wealth in Bengal, and they endeavoured to formulate policy related to many new and unfamiliar issues. New light is shed on debate about revenue collection, territorial rights, diplomacy, justice and administrative reform in order to illustrate the central theme of the book: the gradual and reluctant assumption of responsibility by ministers for the Indian empire. Firm guidelines for the development of the Anglo-Indian imperial connection were eventually laid down by Lord North's Regulating Act of 1773, and the background to, and principles underpinning, this important legislative landmark are fully explored in the concluding chapters.
Contents
List of tables; Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Traders into sovereigns: the East India Company, 1757-1765; 2. Perceptions of empire; 3. The policy-makers: Parliament and the East India Company; 4. Crown and Company (I): the Diwani and the inquiry of 1767; 5. Crown and Company (II): foreign relations, 1766-1769; 6. Attempts at reform (I): civil, military, and judicial affairs, 1767-1772; 7. Attempts at reform (II): trade and revenue, 1767-1772; 8. The East India Company crisis of 1772; 9. Response to crisis (I): high politics and the committees of inquiry, 1772-1773; 10. Response to crisis (II): trade, finance, and reform; 11. The final act? the passage of Lord North's East India legislation, 1773; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.
