Revenue for the East India Company


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Revenue for the East India Company

Revenue for the company: The company had become the Diwan, but it still saw itself primarily as a trader. It wanted a large revenue income but was unwilling to set up any regular system of assessment and collection. The effort was to increase the revenue as much as it could and buy cotton and silk cloth as cheaply as possible. Before 1865, the company had purchased goods in India by importing gold and silver from Britain. Now the revenue collected in Bengal could finance the purchase of goods for export.

Soon it was clear that the Bengal economy was facing a deep crisis. Artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to sell their goods to the company at low prices. Peasants were unable to pay the dues that were being demanded from them. Artisanal production showed signs of collapse. Then in 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. About one- third of the population was wiped out.

In 1772, under Warren Hastings, the East India Company took over revenue collection directly in the Bengal presidency (then Bengal and Bihar), establishing a Board of Revenue with offices in Calcutta and Patna, and moving the pre-existing Mughal revenue records from Murishidabad to Calcutta.

In 1773, after Oudh ceded the tributary state of Benaras, the revenue collection system was extended to the territory with a Company Resident in charge.The following year—with a view to preventing corruption—Company district collectors, who were then responsible for revenue collection for an entire district, were replaced with provincial councils at Patna, Murshidabad, and Calcutta, and with Indian collectors working within each district. The title, "collector", reflected "the centrality of land revenue collection to government in India: it was the government's primary function and it moulded the institutions and patterns of administration".

Sample Questions
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Question : 1

Why did the East India Company changed the system of revenue collection many times?

Right Option : B
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Question : 2

Artisans left ______ , as they were being forced by the East India Company to sell their products at cheaper rate.

Right Option : C
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Question : 3

Name the people who were not getting the proper amount for what they sold.

Right Option : A
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Explanation
 
 


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