About the Book
This book, first published in 1968, is a study of the impact made on Britain by the conquest of large parts of India in the second half of the eighteenth century. The sudden success of the East India Company in subjugating a vast population with a sophisticated civilization created problems of an unprecedented kind for Britain. It raised in an acute form questions about the scope and limits of state action, the rights of chartered bodies, the duties of conquerors to subject peoples, the appropriateness of exporting western ideals and concepts of law and government to Asia, and the manner in which the resources of the East could best contribute to Britain's power and wealth.
These and similar topics were discussed at length in Parliament, the press, books and pamphlets, and in the correspondence of private individuals. A selection of this material, drawing on a wide and varied range of printed and manuscript sources, has been made to illustrate the arguments used in this debate and the manner in which solutions to some of the problems were gradually worked out over a period of more than fifty years. By 1813, after much trial and error, the outline of the political, administrative and economic links which were to bind India to Britain for much of the nineteenth century are already visible.
Table of Contents:
General Introduction; Author’s Note; Introduction; Documents; 1. The Petition of the City of London against Lord North's Regulating Act, 28 May, 1773 2. 2 Laurence Sulivan's Instructions to his son on going to India, circa 6 April, 1778 3. North's Regulating Act, 1773 (Clauses relating to the organization of the Company) 4. John Robinson's 'Considerations on East India Affairs', 1778 5. Dundas's Bill of 1783 (Clauses relating to the organization of the Company) 6. Fox's First India Bill, 1783 7. Pitt's India Act, 1784 (Clauses relating to the organization of the Company and the Powers of the Board of Control) 8. Lord Castlereagh to Lord Melville, 4 August, 1803 9. Lord Melville to Lord Castlereagh, 4 August, 1803 10. The Court of Directors to the Board of Control, 6 November, 1805 11. An Examination before the House of Commons, 18 December, 1772 12. The Nabob, a Play by Samuel Foote, Act II 13. William Cowper to the Reverend William Unwire, 3 January, 1784 14. North's Regulating Act, 1773 (Clauses relating to the Government of India) 15. Resolutions on Indian Affairs Passed by the House of Commons, 28 May, 1782 16. Dundas's Bill of 1783 (Clauses relating to the Government of India) 17. Fox's Second India Bill, 1783 18. Pitt's India Act, 1784 (Clauses relating to the Government of India) 19. Lord Clive's Defence before the House of Commons, 1 May 1773 20. Warren Hastings's Defence before the House of Commons, 1 May, 1786 21. Edmund Burke, 'Speech on Mr Fox's East India Bill', 1 December, 1783 22. Edmund Burke's Speech at the Trial of Warren Hastings, 28 May, 1794 23. Adam Smith on the East India Company 24. Thomas Pow fall on the Government of India, 1781 25. Robert Grant, in Defence of the Company, 1813 26. Resolutions of the Committee of the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty, 2 March, 1813 27. William Wilberforce on Missions, 1813 28. Against Missionaries, 1807 29. The Virtues of Indian Civilization, 1813 30. The Charter of the 'New' East India Company, 5 September, 1698 31. Criticism of the Shipping System of the East India Company, 1795 32. A Defence of the Shipping System of the East India Company, 1799 33. The Court of Directors' Dispatch to the Bengal Council, 21 November, 1766 34. The Commutation Act, 1784 35. The Case of the Cotton Industry, 1788 36. The First Report of the Select Committee of the Court of Directors on Exports, 1 September, 1791 37. 'Hints respecting the E[ast] I[ndian] Trade', 4 March, 1793 38. Henry Dundas to Francis Baring, 16 February, 1793 39. The Charter Act of 1793 40. Opposition to European Colonization in India 41. A Petition against the East India Company's Monopoly 42. Lord Grenville on Indian Trade, 1813 43. A Report of a Committee of Correspondence of the Court of Directors, 9 February, 1813 44. A Defence of the Company's Monopoly, 1813 45. The Charter Act of 1813; Suggestions for Further Reading; Index
About the Author :
P. J. Marshall
