On 1757-06-23, the British East India Company defeated Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah at Plassey and installed Mir Jafar as nawab. The victory gave the Company decisive political influence in Bengal, creating the conditions for large-scale revenue extraction to fund its military and commercial ambitions.
On 1764-10-22, Company forces defeated a coalition including the Mughal emperor’s side and regional rulers at Buxar. This victory strengthened the Company’s bargaining power and set up the later transfer of formal revenue-collection authority in Bengal.
On 1765-08-16, the Treaty of Allahabad granted the Company the Diwani—the right to collect land revenue—in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa on the Mughal emperor’s behalf. This shifted the Company from being mainly a trading power to being a major fiscal state in eastern India, with taxation revenues supporting its army and administration.
After 1765, Bengal operated under a split arrangement often described as “dual” governance: the Company controlled revenue collection while the nawab’s side retained many day-to-day administrative roles. In practice, this separation weakened accountability, because revenue demands could rise without the same authority being responsible for public administration and relief.
In 1769–1770, a major drought and crop failures contributed to the Great Bengal famine, which caused severe mortality and social disruption. The famine became closely tied to debates about Company revenue extraction and administrative responsibility in Bengal, helping spur calls in Britain for stronger oversight of Company rule.
On 1772-04-28, Warren Hastings took office as governor in Bengal, at a time when the Company was under pressure to make Bengal’s revenue and administration work more directly under its authority. His tenure marked a shift toward tighter Company management of governance, not just tax collection.
On 1773-06-21, Parliament’s Regulating Act created the post of Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal and established a Supreme Court at Calcutta. It was an early step in turning the Company’s Bengal administration from a largely corporate operation into a system supervised by the British state.
On 1784-08-13, Pitt’s India Act set up a Board of Control, giving the British government stronger power over Company political and administrative decisions. This further limited the Company’s independence and linked Bengal’s revenue system more directly to British state priorities.
On 1793-03-22, the Company announced the Permanent Settlement in Bengal, aiming to stabilize revenue by fixing land-tax demands and recognizing zamindars as key intermediaries. The policy shaped Bengal’s rural economy by tying government income to a system of landlords collecting payments from cultivators, with long-term consequences for debt, land transfer, and local power.
Through repeated charter renewals, Parliament steadily reduced the Company’s trading privileges while keeping it in charge of governing territory and collecting revenue. The Charter Act of 1813 was a major turning point, ending the Company’s monopoly of trade in India (while some exceptions remained), pushing the Company further toward being a governing body funded by Indian revenues.
In 1833, Parliament ended the Company’s commercial activities and recast it as primarily an administrative authority in India. This change reflected a broader shift: Bengal’s revenue extraction and administration were increasingly treated as state functions rather than a company’s business operations.
On 1857-05-10, a mutiny in Meerut by Company troops helped ignite the wider Indian Rebellion of 1857–1859. The uprising exposed how fragile Company authority had become, and it convinced many British leaders that governing India through a chartered company was no longer workable.
On 1858-08-02, Parliament passed the Government of India Act, transferring authority from the East India Company to the British Crown. This ended the Company’s Bengal-centered system of revenue extraction and administration as a corporate regime and began direct imperial rule (the British Raj) under a Secretary of State for India.
British East India Company revenue extraction and Bengal administration (1757–1858)