1765.

incumbent upon them to yield him protection against the resentment of a chief CHAP. VII. whose power he could not resist. The Vizir bound himself not to molest the Rajah, in the possession of his former dominions; and the Rajah was held bound to pay him the same tribute as before. The Vizir and the English engaged to afford assistance, each to the other, in case the territory of the other was invaded; and the Vizir engaged never to harbour or employ Meer Causim or Sumroo.

with the Em

The business with the Emperor was the next subject of negotiation which Arrangement claimed the exertions of Clive. Of the annual tribute to the Emperor, con- peror. tracted for in the names of Meer Jaffier, Meer Causim, and Nujeem ad Dowla, as the imperial revenue from Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, thirty lacks were unpaid. Of this debt, the indigent sovereign was frankly and definitively told, that not a single rupee would ever be given him. The sum which had, under the English authority, been assigned as the share due to him of the revenue of these provinces, was twenty-six lacks of rupees in money, and jaghires or land to the annual amount of five lacks and a half. The jaghires, it was now made known to him, that he must henceforth renounce. He expressed warmth, and even resentment, upon the hardness of these arbitrary conditions; but the necessities of the humbled monarch left him without means of relief. The twenty-six lacks of rupees were continued as his portion of the revenues; and he was put in possession of the countries of Corah and Allahabad. On his part was Acquisition of required the imperial grant of the duannee, or collection and receipt of the revenues, in Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. The phirmaun of the duannee, which marks one of the most conspicuous eras in the history of the Company, constituting them masters of so great an empire, in name and in responsibility, as well as in power,* was dated the 12th day of August, 1765. Along with the duannee was required of the Emperor his imperial confirmation of all the territory which the Company possessed throughout the nominal extent of the Mogul empire. Among these confirmations was not forgotten the jaghire of Lord Clive; a possession, the dispute about which that powerful servant had compromised before his departure from England, by yielding the reversion to the Company, after ten years' payment, if so long he should live.

It was in the course of this summer that, in pursuance of the terms of the

* The Select Committee express strongly their sense of the ostensible change; in their Consultation, 18th Sept. 1765, describing the Company as having "come into the place of the country government, by his Majesty's royal grant of the duannee." See Fourth Report, Committee of Secrecy of House of Commons, 1773. Appendix, No. 38.

the duannee.

Book IV. treaty concluded in Europe between the English and the French, the settlements of that nation at Chandernagor and other places in Bengal, were restored. Proceedings of On the 7th of September, Lord Clive resumed his seat, in the Select Com.

1765.

Clive relative

trade.

to the private mittee; in which the urgent questions respecting the inland trade now constituted the grand subject of consultation. The Company's letter of the 8th of Febru ary, 1764, completely prohibiting the inland trade of their servants, was taken into consideration by the Board, on the 17th of October, in the same year. And it was resolved, that all the branches of that trade, which it was worth while to carry on, should still be steadfastly retained; but that proper respect should be shown to the commands of their masters; and what was of no value to keep should be immediately and completely resigned. The grand articles of the interior trade of Bengal were salt, beetel-nut, and tobacco; of which salt was out of all proportion the most important: Tobacco in particular was so inconsiderable that few, if any, of the Company's servants had engaged in it. The determination was, to give up the tobacco, preserving and securing the beetelnut and the salt. It must not, however, be forgotten that an order was now issued, prohibiting the practice of forcing the natives to buy and sell at any price which the Company's servants thought proper to command.

.

On the 1st of June, 1764, a letter was written by the Court of Directors, in consequence of the resolution of the Court of Proprietors that the letter of the 8th of February should be reconsidered. In this, the Directors declared, that the terms imposed upon Meer Causim for the regulation of the private trade in the interior" appeared to them so injurious to the Nabob and the natives, that they could not, in the very nature of them, tend to any thing but the producing general heart-burning and dissatisfactions: That the orders, therefore, in their letter of the 8th of February should remain in force until a more equitable and satisfactory plan could be formed and adopted; and, as it was impossible for them to frame such a plan at home, destitute as they were of the informations and lights necessary to guide them in settling such an important affair-the Committee were therefore ordered, as soon after the receipt of this letter as might be convenient, to consult the Nabob as to the manner of carrying on the inland trade, and thereupon to form a proper and equitable plan for that purpose, and transmit the same to the Directors; accompanied by such explanations, observations, and remarks, as might enable them to give their sentiments and directions thereupon in a full and explicit manner:-And in doing this, as before observed, they were to have a particular regard to the interest and entire satisfaction of the Nabob." It was agreed, in general consultation at Fort

William, on the 25th of January, 1765, to defer all proceedings on this order, CHAP. VII. till the arrival of Lord Clive; and in the mean time, in defiance of both letters, the course of the inland trade remained undisturbed.

One important circumstance in the letter of the 1st of June, the Directors themselves interpreted, one way; their servants in India chose to interpret, another. The servants inferred that the letter empowered them not only to contrive a plan, but also to put it in practice. It was maintained on the other' hand, that the letter only authorized them to devise a plan, and transmit the account of it to the Directors. The letter, as usual, was vague and ambiguous; and those who had to act upon it, at so vast a distance, preferred, as might have been expected, the interpretation which best suited their own interests.

It is worthy of particular remark, that Lord Clive, as he declares to the Directors themselves,* framed the plan, which was afterwards adopted, during his voyage to India. But, as he could not then have any lights which he had not in England, he might, unless he had determined not to be governed by the Directors, have opened to them his project, before he departed; and have allowed to his masters the privilege of deciding.

1765.

It is not less worthy of remark, that Clive and the other Members of the He enters into it himself. Select Committee; Carnac excepted, who had not left the army; formed a partnership before the beginning of June, for buying up large quantities of salt; that all the purchases were made during the month of June, and that in nine months the parties realized a profit, including interest, of about forty-five per cent. In apology for Clive, it was stated, that he brought out with him three gentlemen from England, Mr. Strachey, his secretary; Mr. Maskelyne, an old friend and fellow-servant of the Company; and Mr. Ingham, his surgeon; and that for the sake of making a fortune to them he engaged in that suspicious transaction. If a proceeding, however, is in its own nature shameful; there is but little saved, when the emolument is only made to go into the pocket of a connexion.

made a mono

superior ser

On the 10th of August, after these purchases had for some time been com- Private trade pleted, and after certain inquiries had been made respecting the usual prices poly for the of salt in different places; it was resolved, in a Select Committee composed of benefit of the only Mr. Sumner and Mr. Verelst, That a monopoly should be formed of the vants of the Company. trade in salt, beetel-nut, and tobacco, to be carried on exclusively for the benefit of the superior servants of the Company. After several consultations, the following rules were adopted: That, deducting a duty to the Company, com

1765.

Book IV. puted to produce 100,000l. per annum, the profits should be divided among three classes of proprietors: That, in the first class, should be allowed; to the governor, five shares; to the second in council, three shares; to the general, three shares; ten gentlemen of council, each, two shares; two colonels, each, two shares -in all thirty-five: That, in the second class, consisting of one chaplain, fourteen senior merchants, and three lieutenant-colonels, in all eighteen persons, twothirds of one share should be granted to each, or twelve shares to the whole: In the third class, consisting of thirteen factors, four majors, four first surgeons at the presidency, two first surgeons at the army, one secretary to the council, one sub-accountant, one Persian translator, and one sub-export-warehousekeeper, in all twenty-seven persons, one-third of a share should be distributed to each, or nine shares to the whole: That a committee of four, empowered to make bye-laws, borrow money, and determine the amount of capital, should be appointed for the entire management of the concern: That the purchases should be made by contract: That the goods should be conveyed by the agents of the association to certain fixed places, and there sold to the native merchants and retailers at established and invariable prices: That the exclusive power of making those purchases should be insured to the association for one year: And that European agents should be allowed to conduct the business of the society in different parts of the country.

Pretexts on which this monopoly was founded.

Their unsoundness.

In defence of this scheme, it was urged, that by the prohibition of presents, and the growing share of the export and import trade engrossed by the Company's investment, the pay of their servants was reduced to the means of a bare subsistence; that besides the that besides the hardship of this policy, the wisdom was very defective, since it was absurd to suppose that men deprived of the means of enriching themselves by legitimate, would abstain from illegitimate means, when placed to a boundless extent in their power; that a too rapid enriching of their servants, by enabling them to hurry to England, and leaving none but inexperienced youths to conduct their affairs, was ruinous to their interests; and that, by the admirable arrangements of the trade society, a proper fortune was secured to those who had attained a certain station in the service, without incurring the danger of sending them home enriched at too early a period,

Upon these arguments, one reflection cannot be withheld, because the occa sions for its application are exceedingly numerous, and because it appears, unhappily, to be not frequently made. It is contrary to experience, that by deriving large emoluments from an office the person who holds it will be less eager to grasp at any unlawful gains which are within his reach. The avidity

1765.

for more is not in general diminished by the amount of what is possessed. A CHAP. VII. trifling sum will doubtless lose something of its apparent magnitude in the eye of a man of wealth; but the vast sums are those alone which are of much importance; and they, we find, are as resistless a temptation to the rich as to the poor. The prevalence of the idea that satiating the servants of the public with wealth is a secret for rendering them honest, only proves how little the art of government has borrowed as yet from the science of human nature. If, with 1 immense emoluments, a door is left open to misconduct, the misconduct is but the more ensured; because the power of the offender affords him a shield against both popular contempt and legal chastisement. If the servants of the Company, as Clive and his Committee so positively affirmed, had it in their power, and in their inclination, to pillage and embezzle, when their incomes were small; the mere enlargement of their incomes would add to the power, and could not much detract from the inclination.

At the time of these proceedings, the Select Committee were deprived of the shelter even of an ambiguous expression; and knew that they were acting in express defiance of the wishes and commands of their superiors. Under date the 15th of February, 1765, the Directors had written in the following terms: "In our letters of the 8th February and 1st June last, we gave our sentiments and directions very fully in respect to the inland trade of Bengal ;-we now enforce the same in the strongest manner, and positively insist that you take no steps whatever towards renewing this trade, without our express leave; for which reason you must not fail to give us the fullest information upon the subject, agreeable to our above-mentioned directions."

Council not to

Having thus established the private trade Society, the Committee proceeded Members of to introduce other regulations which the state of affairs appeared to require. It receive factorhad been a common practice with Members of the Council, instead of remaining ships. at the Board for the business of the Presidency, to receive nomination to the chiefship of factories, as often as additional means of accumulating money were thereplaced in their hands. To this practice the Committee, on very good grounds, resolved to put an end. "We are convinced," they said, " by very late experience, that the most flagrant oppressions may be wantonly committed in those employments, by Members of the Board, which would not be tolerated in junior servants; and that the dread and awe annexed to their station, as counsellors, has too frequently screened them from complaints, which would be lodged without fear or scruple against inferior servants." Yet, with this experience before them, they recommended great emoluments as a security against corrup