Regulating Acts
East India Company. Act, 1773:
By this Act, the Parliament of the United Kingdom imposed a series of
administrative and economic reforms and by doing so clearly established
its sovereignty and ultimate control over the Company. The Act recognized
the Company's political functions and clearly established that the "acquisition
of sovereignty by the subjects of the Crown is on behalf of the Crown
and not in their own right."
Despite stiff resistance from the East India lobby in parliament, and from the Company's shareholders, the Act was passed. It introduced substantial governmental control, and allowed the land to be formally under the control of the Crown, but leased to the Company at £40,000 for two years. Under this provision, the governor of Bengal Warren Hastings was promoted to the rank of Governor General, having administrative powers over all of British India. It provided that his nomination, though made by a court of directors, should in future be subject to the approval of a Council of Four appointed by the Crown. He was entrusted with the power of peace and war. British judicial personnel would also be sent to India to administer the British legal system. The Governor General and the council would have complete legislative powers. Thus Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of India. The company was allowed to maintain its virtual monopoly over trade, in exchange for the biennial sum and an obligation to export a minimum quantity of goods yearly to Britain. The costs of administration were also to be met by the company. These provisions, initially welcomed by the Company, backfired. The Company had an annual burden on its back, and its finances continued steadily to decline.
East India Company Act (Pitt's India Act) 1784:
This Bill had two key aspects:
Relationship to the British Government - the Bill clearly differentiated
the political functions of the East India Company from its commercial
activities. For its political transactions the Act directly subordinated
the East India Company to the British Government. To accomplish this,
the Act created a Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India usually
referred to as the Board of Control. The members of the Board of Control
were the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Secretary of State, and four Privy
Councillors, nominated by the King. The Act specified that the Secretary
of State, "shall preside at, and be President of the said Board."
Internal Administration of British India – the Bill laid the foundation
of the British centralized bureaucratic administration of India which
would reach its peak at the beginning of the twentieth century with the
governor-generalship of George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Curzon.
The expanded East India House, Leadenhall Street, London, as rebuilt 1799-1800,
Richard Jupp, architect (as seen c. 1828; demolished in 1929)Pitt's Act
was deemed a failure because it was immediately apparent that the boundaries
between governmental control and the Company's powers were obscure and
highly subject to interpretation. The government also felt obliged to
answer humanitarian voices pleading for better treatment of natives in
British occupied territories. Edmund Burke, a former East India Company
shareholder and diplomat, felt compelled to relieve the situation and
introduced before parliament a new Regulating Bill in 1783. The Bill was
defeated due to intense lobbying by Company loyalists and accusations
of nepotism in the Bill's recommendations for the appointment of councillors.
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