From Trade To Territory

Question 1

How and when did the British EIC gain the right to trade in India?

Answer 1

The EIC acquired a charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1600 that granted it the power to trade with the East.

Question 2

Why didn’t the EIC have any competition from England?

Answer 2

No other trading company in England had a charter/permission from the monarch to trade in the East.

Question 3

What is mercantile?

Answer 3

A business that makes profit primarily through buying goods at a cheaper price and selling them for a high price.

Question 4

Who was already there before the British arrived in India?

Answer 4

The Portuguese were already in Goa before the British and has established a dominant presence over western coast of India.

Question 5

Who else, except for the Portuguese and the British were in India from other parts of Europe?

Answer 5

The Dutch (early 17th century) and French.

Question 6

What caused conflict between the 4 nations?

Answer 6

All four nations wanted to buy the same things, the competition caused the prices to inflate and the profit acquired through trade to decrease.

Question 7

How did the traders from each nation try to promote their trade?

Answer 7

They all tried to eliminate their rival competitors, this led to fierce battles. They sank each others ships,blockaded routes and prevented rival ships from moving with goods. Trade was carried on with arms and forts to protect trading posts.

Question 8

Where was the first English factory set up?

Answer 8

The bank of river Hugli in 1651.

Question 9

What were the companies traders known as at that time?

Answer 9

Factors

Question 10

How did the company improve its trade after the construction of its first base?

Answer 10

It persuaded local merchants to come settle near the factory to improve its trade.

Question 11

How did the EIC gain zamindari rights over 3 villages?

Answer 11

It bribed local officials and got control over 3 villages, one of which is Calcutta.

Question 12

What did the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb issue a Farman for?

Answer 12

To allow the EIC to trade duty/tax free.

Question 13

What did the EIC do to anger the Nawab of Bengal and cause him to protest against them?

Answer 13

The EIC refused to pay taxes for its private trade, causing a huge loss of revenue for the Nawab of Bengal, so he protested against them.

Question 14

What restrictions did the Nawabs impose on the EIC?

Answer 14

They refused to grant the company concessions, demanded large tributes for the companies right to trade, denied it any right to mint coins, and prevented fortification.

Question 15

What did the nawabs accuse the company of doing?

Answer 15

They were depriving the Bengal government of revenue, undermining the authority if the nawab, refusing to pay taxes, writing disrespectful letters, trying to humiliate the nawab and his officials

Question 16

What did the company have to say about the local officials and their taxes?

Answer 16

The company declared that the unjust demands of the local officials was ruining the trade, and trade could only flourish if all duties were removed.

Question 17

What did the company believe it had to do to improve trade?

Answer 17

Enlarge its settlements, buy up villages and rebuild its forts.

Question 18

What did the company do as it was worried about Sirajuddaulah’s power? Was it successful in doing so? What were the repercussions of this?

Answer 18

1. The company became keen on a puppet ruler who would willingly give trade concessions and other privileges, it tries to make one of Sirajuddaulah’s rivals become the nawab. But the company was not successful in doing so.
2. The repercussions of this were that the nawab became infuriated and asked the Company to stop meddling with political affairs, stop fortification and pay the revenues.

Question 19

What did the nawab, Sirajuddaulah, do when negotiations with the EIC on the EIC meddling with political affairs and refusing to pay taxes failed?

Answer 19

He marched to the EIC factory at Kassimbazar, captured and disarmed the company officials and locked the warehouse. He also blockaded English ships and marched to Calcutta to establish control over the Company’s fort there.

Question 20

What did the Company Officials in Madras do when they heard of the fall of Calcutta?

Answer 20

They sent forces under the command of Robert Clive, reinforced by Naval Fleets. Prolonged negotiations with the Nawab followed. Finally, in 1757, Clive led the army against the Nawab at Plassey.

Question 21

What was one of the main reasons Sirauddaulah lost the battle of Plassey?

Answer 21

One of his commanders, Mir Jafar, and his forces never fought the war. Clive had acquired his support by promising to make him the Nawab after crushing the current Sirajuddaulah.

Question 22

What were some of the issues the company faced after it begun indirectly ruling countries through puppet rulers?

Answer 22

• It was unwilling to take over administrative responsibility as it was still mainly focused on trade.
• Puppet Nawabs were also not always helpful as they also wanted power and wanted to be respected by their disciples.

Question 23

What conclusion did Clive come to when the EIC failed to work with puppet Nawabs?

Answer 23

He decided that the company workers must become Nawabs themselves to govern the country.

Question 24

What rights were appointed to the EIC that helped it fund all its affairs when its gold and silver outflow from Britain decreased due to the battle of Plassey

Answer 24

The company was appointed the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal (administrative rights) that helped it utilise the vast resources present in Bengal to finance company expenses. They basically used India’s resources to buy more of India’s resources.

Question 25

Why did the company primarily have to trade in gold and silver from Britain?

Answer 25

This is because the company had to resources to trade at that time that were sourced from England.

Question 26

What were the revenue resources of Bengal used for?

Answer 26

They were used for purchasing cotton and silk textiles, maintaining troops, construction costs of company fort and offices at Calcutta.

Question 27

Who were the ‘Nabobs’ ?

Answer 27

Nabobs were English people who had managed to return from working in India with lots of riches and flaunted them. They were called nabobs, an anglicised version of ‘nawabs’. They were usually ridiculed in cartoons and viewed as upstarts/social climbers.

Question 28

Who were Residents?

Answer 28

They were people appointed by the Company that were political/commercial agents who had to make sure that the further interests of the company were satisfied.

Question 29

What was a subsidiary alliance.

Answer 29

A subsidiary alliance was an expansion policy wherein the kings couldn’t have their own forces, they had to maintain company forces. But, they had to pay for the subsidiary forces, if failed to do so, a part of their kingdom will be annexed.

Question 30

What did the company do to nations that they saw as a threat?

Answer 30

They confronted them.

Question 31

What did Tipu Sultan do that angered the EIC?

Answer 31

In 1785, he stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through his ports and disallowed merchant from trading with the company.

Question 32

How did Tipu Sultan modernise his army? How was he killed?

Answer 32

With the help of the French in India. He was killed defending his capital Shrirangapatnam, Mysore was placed under the former dynasty of the Wodeyars.

Question 33

Claim to paramountcy.

Answer 33

Lord Hastings - the British authority was paramount or supreme.

Question 34

Doctrine of Lapse

Answer 34

Lord Dalhousie - If an Indian ruler dies without a natural born male heir, the kingdom will lapse into the British rule.

Question 35

What were the British territories broadly divided into by the time of Warren Hastings?

Answer 35

Administrative units called presidencies.

Question 36

What was the new system of justice that was established in 1772?

Answer 36

Each district had a criminal court and a civil court. European collectors presided over civil courts, while the criminal courts were still under the rule of a quazi (judge) and a mufti but under the collecter’s supervision.

Question 37

Who was the principal figure in an Indian district?

Answer 37

A collector, whose job was to collect taxes and revenue.