The Pitt's India Act of 1784 was a British parliamentary act that established the East India Company as a monopoly over British trade with India and granted the company the power to regulate trade in India and make treaties with Indian rulers.
The act was named after William Pitt the Younger, who served as the British Prime Minister at the time. It followed the termination of the East India Company's charter in 1773, which had given the company a monopoly over British trade with India, China, and the East Indies.
The Pitt's India Act was intended to address the problems that had arisen during the company's previous monopoly, such as corruption and mismanagement. Under the act, the company was required to submit annual reports to the British government and to obtain the approval of the government for its commercial and political activities in India.
The Pitt's India Act also established a new system of governance for India, with the company's directors and their subordinates having control over the company's affairs in India. The act also established a court of judicature in India, which had the authority to try civil and criminal cases involving Europeans.
The Pitt's India Act was an important step in the development of British rule in India and marked the beginning of the company's role as a major political and economic power in the country.
The Pitt's India Act of 1784 was a British Act of Parliament that established a new system for the governance of the East India Company's territories in India. The Act was named after William Pitt the Younger, who was the British Prime Minister at the time.
The East India Company was a British trading company that had been granted the right to trade in India by the British government. However, the company had also acquired significant territories in India and had been exercising a degree of political control over these territories. The Pitt's India Act was intended to address this situation and to provide a more structured and transparent system of governance for the company's territories in India.
The Act established a new system of government in India, consisting of a Board of Control and a Court of Directors. The Board of Control was responsible for overseeing the affairs of the East India Company in India and was composed of six members of the British government, including the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The Court of Directors was responsible for managing the company's commercial affairs and was composed of 24 directors, who were elected by the company's shareholders.
The Act also established a system of checks and balances to ensure that the East India Company's activities in India were subject to oversight by the British government. It granted the British government the power to regulate the company's trade and revenue policies, and to appoint and remove officials in the company's territories in India.
The Pitt's India Act was a significant milestone in the history of British India and had far-reaching consequences for the governance of the East India Company's territories in India. It marked the beginning of a more structured and regulated system of governance in India, which was further developed and refined over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries.