Regulating and Charter Acts

By the 1770s a private company was ruling Bengal, and ruling it badly. So the British Parliament began to control it by law. The Regulating Act (1773) was the first step. Pitt's India Act (1784) and four Charter Acts (1793, 1813, 1833, 1853) followed. Each one took more power away from the Company.

After 1765 the Company collected the revenue of Bengal. Its servants grew rich, but the people suffered. The Bengal famine of 1770 killed millions. By 1772 the Company was short of money and asked the government for a loan. Parliament agreed to help, but only with control. The Prime Minister, Lord North, brought in the Regulating Act.

• The Governor of Bengal became the Governor-General of Bengal. The first was Warren Hastings.
• He had an Executive Council of four members. Decisions were by majority.
• The Governors of Bombay and Madras were placed under Bengal in matters of war and peace.
• A Supreme Court was set up at Fort William, Calcutta, in 1774: one Chief Justice and three other judges.
• Company servants were banned from private trade and from taking gifts or bribes.
• The Company had to send its revenue, civil and military reports to the British government.

Two names from 1773

Lord North

Prime Minister 1770–1782 · Passed the Regulating Act

• The Act is linked with his government
• First time Parliament regulated the Company

Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1773–74 · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Sir Elijah Impey

Chief Justice from 1774 · Supreme Court, Calcutta

• First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at Calcutta
• A friend of Warren Hastings

Johann Zoffany · National Portrait Gallery, London, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

The 1773 Act had problems. Hastings and his council often quarrelled. The Supreme Court also clashed with the government. The Act of Settlement (1781) cut down the court's powers. Then, in 1784, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger passed a stronger law.

• The Governor-General of Bengal became the Governor-General of India. The first was Lord William Bentinck.
• Only he and his council could now make laws for all British India. Bombay and Madras lost their law-making powers.
• Laws made under this Act were called Acts, not Regulations.
• The Company's tea and China trade monopoly ended. It became a purely administrative body.
• A fourth member for law joined the council. The first Law Member was Macaulay.
• It said no Indian should be kept out of a Company job because of religion, birth or colour.

Two men of 1833

Lord William Bentinck

Governor-General 1828–1835 · First Governor-General of India

• Banned sati in 1829
• Acted against the thugs (highway gangs)

Lithograph after Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1827 · British Museum via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Thomas Babington Macaulay

in India 1834–1838 · First Law Member

• Wrote the Minute on Education (1835) for English education
• Led the first Law Commission; drafted the Indian Penal Code

Maull & Polyblank, 1856 · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

• Law-making was separated from the executive. Six new members joined the council for making laws. This body worked like a small parliament.
• Four of these six came from the provinces of Madras, Bombay, Bengal and Agra.
• Civil service jobs were opened to open competition. Indians too could sit the exam.
• The charter was renewed without a fixed period of 20 years. Parliament could end Company rule any time.