The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company

by William Dalrymple

The economic and political theorist Thomas Pownall wrote how ‘people now at last begin to view those Indian affairs, not simply as financial appendages connected to the Empire; but from the participation of their revenues being wrought into the very frame of our finances … people tremble with horror even at the imagination of the downfall of this Indian part of our system; knowing that it must necessarily involve with its fall, the ruin of the whole edifice of the British Empire’.57 This was certainly the view of the King. George III wrote that he believed ‘the real glory of this nation’ depended on the wealth of India which offered ‘the only safe method of extracting this country out of its lamentable situation owing to the load of debt it labours under’.58 On 26 November, Parliament was recalled to discuss the East India Company’s financial crisis, as well as the now widespread allegations of corruption and malpractice made against individual EIC servants: the contrast between the bankruptcy of the Company and the vast riches of its employees was too stark not to be investigated. There was also a personal element to this: 40 per cent of MPs owned EIC stock and their finances had all been severely damaged by the fall in its value.