It was soon after this order was resolved upon that, the news of the massacre of Patna, the war with Meer Cossim, and other events, having reached England, and diffused the greatest consternation every where, and especially at the India House, Lord Clive was solicited once more to return to Bengal, to restore peace and stability to the empire of which he was the founder. In his letter to the Court of Directors[73], accepting of the government, fully aware of one great source of misrule, he recommended an entire abolition of the inland trade in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco, as having, with other circumstances, concurred to hasten and bring on the late troubles.
But, soon after the date of this letter, the Court of Proprietors, among whom were numbers favourable to the claims of the servants, and who saw with alarm a stop likely to be put to a trade which, in the short space of four years, had already sent many large fortunes to England, had come to a resolution[74] to recommend "to the Court of Directors to reconsider the orders sent to Bengal relative to the trade of the Company's servants in salt, betle-nut, and tobacco; and that they do give such directions for regulating the same, agreeably to the interest of the Company and the Subah, as to them may appear most prudent; either by settling here at home the restrictions under which this trade ought to be carried on, or by referring it to the Governor and Council of Fort William to regulate this important point in such a manner as may prevent all future disputes betwixt the Subah and the Company."
The orders of the 8th of February had been dispatched previously to the arrival of the news of the new treaty with Meer Jaffier; "the terms of which, however," the Directors justly observe, "appear to be so very injurious to the Nabob, and to the natives, that they cannot, in the very nature of them, tend to any thing but the producing general heart-burnings and dissatisfaction;" it is therefore directed, that the orders of the 8th of February remain in force, till a more equitable plan can be formed; the Governor and Council being directed to consult the Nabob as to the manner of carrying on the inland trade of salt, and other articles produced and consumed in the country, which may be most to his satisfaction and advantage, the interest of the Company, and likewise of the Company's servants, and to form and transmit home an equitable plan, to enable the Court to give directions. It is to be remembered, therefore, that in this view there was a threefold interest to be considered; that of the Nabob, of the Company, and of the Company's servants.
This letter was carried out to India in the ship which conveyed Lord Clive; though a copy, sent by another vessel, arrived some time before him.
When Lord Clive reached India, one of the first objects that engaged his attention was the manner in which the public servants were to be remunerated.
At that period, their direct salaries were very trifling; that of councillor being only 350l., and the others small in proportion. The Company was originally strictly a trading Company, and its clerks and servants were paid chiefly by being allowed to trade on their own account. When the Company found it necessary to have troops for the defence of their factories, their military officers were paid in the same way. All were merchants and traders, from the governor, the commandant, and the chaplain, down to the youngest writer and ensign.
Now that they were princes with a large territory, and a formidable army, the steps by which they reached that eminence had been so sudden, and the consequences so unforeseen, that their servants still continued to be civil, military, and ecclesiastical traders: the old system remained unchanged.
But a change of circumstances necessarily called for a change of regulations. The relative situation of the English and natives was no longer the same: for instance, the receiving of presents from native princes, or men of rank, had quite altered its nature. While the Company were mere traders, there could be no good reason for hindering their servants and the natives from mutually receiving and bestowing presents. The parties were on a level, bound to each other by common interest, and presents were nothing more than a mark of the good-will that subsisted between them; the consequence of their friendship or relations in trade, exhibited according to the usage and fashion of the country, of which the giving and receiving of presents formed a part.
In the altered situation of the Company, when their servants concluded treaties, influenced the fate of provinces, and made and unmade princes, things were essentially changed. Presents were now liable to become, not the sign and consequence of good-will, but the motive, and sometimes the guilty motive, of public acts; and great sums might be thus extorted, to the injury both of the natives and of the Company: and, indeed, this natural effect did ensue. The paramount influence of the English authority was abused, for purposes of private interest and selfish rapacity. Great fortunes were made in this way during the five years that Lord Clive was absent in England, and these benevolences became a most heavy burden on the men of rank and wealth in India.