In the preceding two chapters, an account has been given of Lord Clive's successful efforts in the arduous task of reforming the abuses, and restoring order and discipline to the civil and military services of Bengal: it remains to notice other public proceedings of importance during his last residence in India.
No question connected with this period of his service was, at the moment and subsequently, the subject of more comment and discussion, both on the part of the Government at home and of individuals, than the monopoly of the salt trade; the profits of which he divided among the Governor, the Counsellors, and the senior civil and military officers; deeming this indulgence, as he repeatedly states in his official and private letters, indispensable to the integrity and efficiency of the public service. Men in high station, he argued, unless some ample and open allowance was given them, could never be expected to be reconciled to a strict observance of the covenants that prohibited presents, nor to the loss of that internal trade which had been denounced as so ruinous and oppressive. The shares in the profits from salt were, by his plan, divided according to the rank and duties of the parties. The amount was known, and, though liberal, it was limited, and, certainly, would not appear, from the statements made of it, to be more than a fair remuneration to men employed as those were to whom it was allotted.
Whether this mode of remunerating service was the best at the period when it was adopted, and whether the monopoly of the salt produced in the lower parts of Bengal, which the East India Company found existing, and have ever since, under one shape or another, continued, was advantageous or hurtful, on sound financial principles, are questions which merit notice, both as connected with the biography of Clive, and with the source of our Indian revenues.
The habits of thinking, and constitution, of the Court of Directors, rendered them very adverse to granting adequate salaries to those employed in high stations. These had all (including the military) the privilege of trading; and to the exercise of this privilege many of the abuses of the earlier times of the service have been justly attributed. Clive appears to have made reiterated representations upon this subject, impressing the necessity of adequate allowances, in some shape, to the superior officers, in order to animate their zeal, and preserve their public integrity. The narrow allowance to military officers, and their being expected to gain by trade, he particularly condemned. Writing to Major Stibbert[66], he observes, "I have received your letter of the 17th inst., and am not a little surprised that you should so soon request leave to return to Calcutta, considering how short a time you have done duty in your brigade. Your attention, I suspect, is too much taken up with commercial affairs; a study very foreign from an officer, even of an inferior rank, as it must frequently interfere with the services of a military station, but particularly reprehensible in those to whom a share in the profits upon salt is allotted. However, I admit that the death of your attorney may make your presence in Calcutta necessary. You have, therefore, my permission to leave the cantonments immediately, if the service will permit, and Colonel Smith has no objection."
The ground on which he felt the necessity of assuring to military officers of rank liberal allowances, in order that they might suitably maintain their station in life, and enjoy a reward for long service; and the necessity he saw for putting an end, on their part, to all indefinite and indirect perquisites, and of giving to their minds a tone that should elevate them above all sordid views, and make them what their stations required they should be, is well stated in a letter[67] to Sir Robert Barker:—"Colonel Smith is making a vigorous progress in reforming the abuses that fall under his notice. The monstrous charges and impositions of quarter-masters, surgeons, &c., &c., require, indeed, the strictest scrutiny; and he seems determined to go through it with great spirit and attention to the Company's interest. Nor shall I be disappointed in the assistance I expect from you in these matters, whilst I shall, at the same time, have the satisfaction of knowing that you can enforce wholesome regulations without creating disgust. The privilege of making bills, and the long track of frauds introduced under the customary disguise of perquisites, I wish to see entirely abolished. Every emolument shall be fixed, plain and open: the medium shall, if possible, be struck between extravagance and niggardly restrictions: but economy shall take place. The allowance to field officers will be so large as to prevent even their wishing for more; and, at the same time, so reasonable, that I think the Company must approve of them. A colonel's share of the salt produce will be from 5000l. to 6000l. per annum, or more[68]; lieutenant-colonel's and major's in proportion; and as a further encouragement, I intend that all the field officers shall be allowed sufficient to defray the expense of their table. When all mean advantages are disclaimed and held in contempt by gentlemen high in the service, reformation will, of course, be with greater ease introduced among inferiors. You will do me the justice to believe that I mean this as a general observation only, and not as a necessary hint, either to yourself or any of the field officers of your regiment, as I know you are all men of honour and principle."
The reasons of expediency that led Clive to recommend that high public officers, civil and military, should be remunerated by shares in the profits of the salt trade, are stated in numerous letters. He thought that an open, direct, pecuniary allowance would not willingly be sanctioned by the Company out of any of the revenues which flowed into their treasury, and still less from the profits of their trade; and that, besides, such large avowed allowances would invite an attack from the Crown on their patronage; and that the grasping character of the administration in England would lead to a ruinous interference in the nomination of men to India who had no recommendation but their high birth and great interest.
It was the above considerations that compelled him to devise the means he deemed least objectionable of adequately rewarding service, in order to gain, by the tie of self-interest as well as honour, those instruments without whose aid he was sensible the great reform he had resolved to introduce could neither be complete nor permanent. In Clive's correspondence and measures, at this period, will be found the origin and introduction of that important principle of a fair and honourable payment for service, suited to its nature and the rank and responsibility of the individuals employed, which has been generally ascribed to the more enlightened policy of a subsequent administration. That his efforts failed, was owing to the conduct of others, and particularly the public authorities in England, who, in their attack upon the salt monopoly and its appropriation, and in the condemnation of his measures, threw, for a period, a disrepute upon all that he had done, which led to a revival of a great proportion of the abuses he had corrected, and a disregard of the principles he had established. As the salt monopoly and its appropriation has been a subject of constant attack upon his character, and continues, so far as the monopoly is concerned, to be still one upon the Indian Government, the subject merits a cursory notice, which is all that the limits and objects of this Memoir will permit.[69]
We have already seen that, by the firman of the King of Delhi, the English Company possessed the right of trading free from duties. This privilege was granted to favour the kind of trade they then carried on, which was confined to exports and imports by sea: and the dustuck, or passport, of the English presidents or chiefs, was respected by the Subahdar's officers to that extent. Under this privilege the President favoured also the private trade of the Company's servants or officers, which, though not strictly according to the words of the firman, was never objected to.