1600: Elizabeth I grants a royal charter to the East India Company.
1617: The Mughal Emperor grants trading rights to the East India Company permitting them to establish ‘factories’ or trading posts in parts of India.
1744-63: War in Europe sparks Anglo-French wars in South India, in an attempt by both sides to gain political dominance in the South.
1756: Fearing the growing military strength of the British in Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, captures Fort William from the British.
1765: The Diwani of Bengal is granted to the East India Company, enabling them to collect taxes in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa on behalf of the Mughal Emperor. East India Company rule in Bengal is further strengthened.
1773: By 1773, the desperate financial situation of the East India Company and rumours in Britain of ‘nabobs’ growing rich on the spoils of exploitation and corruption results in Lord North’s Regulating Act. A provision of the act was the appointment of a Governor-General of Bengal and four others who would make up a supreme council. The Governor-General would be based in Calcutta, but would also have some authority over the other presidencies. Warren Hastings was named in the act as the first Governor-General of Bengal (1773-85). All subsequent Governor-Generals were to be appointed by the East India Company’s Court of Directors. The act also created a Supreme Court in Calcutta with English jurists as Judges.
1784: The British Government passes the India Act, which places the administration of the East India Company’s territories under a form of joint government with the Crown. A Board of Control, whose President is answerable to Parliament, is appointed to enable the British Government to oversee affairs relating to the Company’s Indian administration, income, military and diplomatic relations. Two members of Parliament are appointed to the board to report back to Parliament. The Court of Directors of the East India Company are to retain governance of all matters relating to trade.
1793: Cornwallis introduces a permanent settlement of the land tax system in Bengal, which gives zamindars (Mughal tax collectors) complete control over their estates, including responsibility for the collection and payment of taxes. This system has far reaching consequences as peasants lose rights to the land they farm and zamindars face losing their land if payments are not kept up.
1813: The East India Company’s charter is renewed at the expense of its monopoly on trade in India. Christian missions are now allowed to proselytise in India.
1829: Bentinck introduces a number of administrative and legal reforms including the abolition of sati (the self-immolation of Hindu widows: initially tolerated by Company regulations) and measures to suppress a form of bandity in central India described as thuggee.
1833: The Charter Act is passed which substitutes the title of the Governor-General and Council of Fort William with the Governor-General and Council of India. The East India Company’s Court of Directors retains the power to elect the Governor General but the ultimate decision rests with the monarch. The renewal of the East India Company’s charter finally ends their trading operations but enables them to continue for a further twenty years their administrative and political governance in India albeit now subordinate to the Board of Control.
1835: Government schools are introduced in India with English as the language of instruction.
1857: The first British railway line is built in India with funds guaranteed from Indian taxes.
East India Company in Bombay, mid 1700's
An Essay on East-India Trade "For all trades have a mutual dependence one upon the other, and one begets another, and the loss of one frequently loses half the rest. By carrying to other places the commodities brought from India, we every where enlarged our commerce, and brought home a great overbalance, either in foreign goods, or in bullion. In Holland we exchanged our wrought silks, callicoes, etc. for their spices: by Indian goods, we could purchase, at a better rate in Germany, the linens of Silesia, Saxony and Bohemia. In times of peace we did, and may again traffic with France, for our India goods against the things of luxury, which will always be brought from thence; and thereby we may bring the balance more of our side between us and that kingdom."
Written by Charles D'Avenant to John Lord Marquis of Normanby
The East India Company was established in the 1600s for the purpose of expanding British trade. The company gradually strengthened their ports, and British merchants began settling in India.