東印度公司
The East India Company
Birth of Empire

Write the following Prompt to DeepSeek:

Please give a comprehensive summary, section by section, of the following YouTube transcripts:

(34985) (Full Episode) Birth of Empire: The East India Company | Episode 1 | BBC Select – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut4eWW-UElA

Transcript: (00:03) [Music] just over 400 years ago the group of London Merchants arrived here on the Indian coast hoping to do some peaceful trading those early Pioneers dreamt of making huge profits from humble beginnings this ragtag band of adventurers secured land from Indian rulers formed alliances with local Craftsmen and built from scratch a commercial Enterprise to export goods to Britain the East India Company was part of this tremendous globalization of the world which really started in the 17th century and speeded up in the 18th and (00:41) 19th centuries over 200 years the company grew into a commercial Titan its wealth rivaled that of the British state it had its own army and eventually ruled over 400 million people it trade was vital to Britain’s commercial success and its shares were the center point of London’s financial markets it revolutionized the British Lifestyle the East India Company changed the way we dress um it changed the way we eat it changed the way we socialize and by accident created one of the most powerful empires in (01:22) history they were instrumental in making Britain the maritime superpower they helped lay the foundations for our own own global trading system today and they also help to make English the world’s language every step of the company’s rise is recorded in a unique archive what a lucky fellow you are Charlie going to India you lead such a luxuous life why you dog when you come home you’ll be a rich man but the letters and Diaries also chart its fall into profiteering nepotism and Corruption every ancient friend of the family hoped (01:59) I should live to be a Major General and eventually a chilling story of drug running and famine numbers of famishing wretches followed our army for the sole purpose of existing on the aul of the camp this is the story of the greatest company the world has ever [Music] known this is where it all started on December the 31st 1600 the East India Company was established by Royal Charter in London and granted a monopoly on trade with the east by Queen Elizabeth I it was the beginning of a new age in Britain’s history an age of speculation (02:45) and profit Enterprise and competition capitalism would change forever the lives of its people and politics trade would make Britain Great and turn London into the richest city in the world world the company built a series of massive warehouses across the city of London to store its goods there was Lime Street fenir Street seething Lane then when they filled up they built more warehouses near the Tower of London and here on Cutler Street these buildings were filled with muslins calicos and silks from India and the (03:23) Orient thanks to the East India Company exotic Goods like spices from Indonesia tea and porcelain from China became part of everyday life every year huge Merchant ships of the East India company known as East Indian would leave from right here loaded down with silver bulling and British merchandise heading up the temps and out to sea to trade with the east on board were young men filled with hope who they were and what happened to them are questions we can now answer thousands of them left behind an extraordinary record of their daily (04:02) lives in documents now held at the British Library snakes have been found in the beds where gentlemen were about to Repose a lady was called in by her servant to see a snake that lay contentedly between two of her infants while sleeping in a small cot this perilous situation produced the utmost anxiety in following their dreams these young men would inadvertently Forge an Empire wealth and honor will pour upon me and to Crown my Felicity some high born damsel will eventually become my wife an Empire that would create (04:34) thousands of winners but millions of losers the vulture Rising reluctantly from its bloody banquet flapped its broad Wings in anger and joined the wild chus with discordant cries Wills Diaries letters more than 100,000 manuscripts fill 9 miles of shelving the letters and Diaries of the people who lived and died under the company’s flag are the Lost voices of the East India Company historian Robert Hutchinson has spent six years studying them there are thousands upon thousands and thousands of Wills of company (05:14) employees and all of them give insight into into life working for the company most of these documents have never been seen before they put us in direct contact with the men and women of the company a unique glimpse of our social history they’re very graphic accounts of the attitudes and the beliefs and the commitment to the lives they’ made for themselves in India they are extraordinarily graphic you’ve been through all of them not all of them but uh it’s it’s a lifetime’s work they’re just fragments of personal (05:53) testimony but pieced together they paint a vivid portrait of daily life in the service of The Honorable company [Music] I’m with these letters and Diaries I’m on a journey to retrace the footsteps of this band of adventurers charting the rise and fall of the world’s greatest [Music] company one country above all would play a preeminent role in that story and become the jewel in the company’s Crown [Music] India our story began in 1639 at an unlikely spot on the East Coast a place that became known as (06:53) Madras Pat now when the company arrived here it wasn’t pursuing dreams of conquest or Empire but looking for a secure base from which to conduct trade and one of its employees Francis day was convinced that this was the right spot and with good reason this is the coromandel coast a name synonymous with diamonds pearls and the finest cotton in mid 17th century Europe Indian cotton was the height of fashion it was cheap colorful and hardwearing a fortune could be made exporting it Francis day claimed a section of (07:36) Beach and set up shop though he may have had other things on his mind this Lusty young man had a girlfriend nearby and he was King to see her as often as possible even threatened to resign unless the company accepted his suggestion not for the last time human history turned on the fair of the heart but this was hardly the place to start a trading post a dangerous Sandbar just off the coast would cause ships to cap siiz or run around and if you made it ashore it wasn’t much better they have no drinkable water (08:13) within a mile of them the sea often threatening destruction on one side and the river in the rainy season inundations on the other the Sun from April to September scorching hot Madras patam is one of the most incommodious places I ever saw in commodious or not the company had established a vital foothold in South India and began to trade they brought in what was the chief product of this area from their point of view Weavers and ders to manufacture handloom cloth and this was the biggest export from here within a year 300 Bengali Weavers (08:57) had set up shop alongside a motly crew of publicans and prostitutes a handful of Englishmen were busy exporting cloth and spices back home for sale in London much to the Delight of the company’s shareholders they could send their ships out here fill the holds with spices and hopefully return rich men now it’s a very lucrative trade and it’s one that had been exploited by other European powers for quite a long time now but by making it a monopoly they could ensure there’d be no domestic opposition to (09:29) threaten the share [Music] profits even so the company’s investors were taking a huge gamble each Voyage could take 2 years or more a long intense wait to see a return on investment along the way there would be potential loss of ships through through storms uh there could be piracy there could be conquest by by local rulers etc etc so this was a very uh high-risk Venture but one that paid dividends from the beginning when company ships first returned from the East Indies in 167 investors had hit the jackpot ah that single Voyage netted an (10:12) absolutely vast amount of money because of these clothes a single cargo this ensured that the investors made a 230% profit bringing them £36,000 that’s tens of millions in today’s money it’s hard to comprehend just how much of a revolution this was something that we now take for granted used in medicine as a painkiller cloves were so highly prized they were literally worth their weight in gold with the construction of a warehouse and several homes the company was turning 3 Mi of beach into commercial real estate trade was (10:52) valuable so they Protected Their new settlement with a stockade and called it Fort St George [Music] the original Forton George was built on this spot now it’s been massively strengthened and enlarged over the years but it took 14 years to build and the East India company directors bitterly complained about the cost but this was like a big security barrier for their warehouse Madras was the springboard for expansion within 50 years the company was building two further settlements which they called Bombay and Kolkata (11:33) these three Urban centers certainly owe their existence to the East India Company uh they didn’t exist before they grew out of small uh trading posts which were gradually fortified became more residential Indian communities moved in servicing the needs of the company and British trade and yeah absolutely crucial in the aliot is these three forts had very small garrisons about 550 men were serving here at Fort George in what was then Madras less than half of them were European troops the rest of them were locally recruited Indians the (12:12) merchants we to trade not fight the trouble was this was a dangerous place to do business competition from other European Traders was fierce skirmishes were common thick walls were a necessary precaution when you come up here to this Battlement you get such a sense of the defensive power of this fort I mean look at these walls they’re comfortably 30 m thick sloping here so that any cannonballs incoming will bounce harmlessly over the heads of the Defenders and each of these embrasures here these v-shaped (12:45) embrasures would have had a big heavy Cannon and these cannon balls would have flown out through here an interlocking Field of Fire making sure that anyone approaching these Fort walls would have been obliterated it’s an incredibly tough position to take with the consent of the local Indian ruler the settlement grew rapidly by 1700 Madras patnam had become a bustling town with 880,000 inhabitants trade was [Music] booming goods were now flooding back from here to Britain and were having a profound effect on the British (13:25) lifestyle have a single te please it was the beginning of new kinds of diets of choice of consumerism people could now choose to have sugar from the West Indies pepper from India it was also the start of the Brit’s obsession with hot drinks tea and coffee arrived for the first time thanks very much kingham silk muslin Calico back in Britain the company was importing a Cavalcade of Rich new Fabrics bowled over by the Exquisite skill of India’s Craftsman the British public went crazy 18th century Indian textiles held (14:20) at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum revealed an impressive range of techniques were used in their manufacturer all these objects are made of chint which is basically cotton which has been hand painted rather than printed the Indians managed to find ways of dying cotton so the colors remained brilliant and were color fast so that was very exciting for people in the west cheap washable and hard wearing they made a huge impact less formal clothing became acceptable and fashionable and it certainly worried the (15:02) British textile industry as they were very fearful that there would be no demand for their own wool and linen products and at one point it caused such a sensation and so much fear amongst the silk workers that they tore the clothes off people’s backs really because they thought their livelihoods were threatened so it was that dramatic company Merchants were quick to respond the cons consumers changing tastes the East India Company would report back regularly after every shipment to Britain from India saying (15:39) well we like this but these didn’t sell so well and could you do more of the floral Spriggs or could you do more of this color the long cloth you sent us proves so very coarse ill- washed and packed that it is unfit to be sent home our money is much better than such trash the British retail fashion industry Tre was born pajamas bandanas dungarees dozens of new words entered the English dictionary demand for Indian textiles was so great it threatened to destroy Britain’s industry everything that used to be made (16:16) of wool or silk relating to either the dress of women or the furniture of our houses was supplied by the India trade the government even passed passed a law to ban people from weing Indian textiles but it didn’t work testimony to the rising power of the consumer over the next 100 years sales of Indian textiles would generate 60% of the company’s income by 1700 it was operating 22 trading posts across India Kolkata was one of the biggest the company’s star was Rising fast [Music] but investors were about to be handed a (17:05) commercial opportunity beyond their wildest [Music] expectations for 200 years India had been part of a vast Empire ruled by a powerful Dynasty the mugal had imposed a centralized government built imposing monuments and unified the country with a road system and single [Music] currency the population was huge compared with Britain’s it was about 140 million Britain then had about 4 million um the economic position was it was the second largest economy in the world reputedly um with about 25% of the world’s GDP (18:01) for the first few decades the mighty mugal barely even noticed the East India Company the British didn’t cause trouble and besides they paid good money the mugul Empire had a tax on Imports of bulling so they were doing quite well out of the company bringing in all this silver and gold uh they were also selling the company trading concessions and uh wherever they were able to set up factories they had to pay for it so it was quite a good sort of source of income for the [Music] Empire but in 1707 the mugal Empire began to (18:41) disintegrate when the last great mugal emperor orb died his successors were unable to hold his empire together and power devolved into a patchwork of competing Regional States obsessed with its own problems therefore the Empire didn’t have time to worry about the little old India Company amid the confusion a deal was signed in exchange for an annual fee the East India Company was granted the right to trade dutyfree across the state of Bengal no gift could have been greater company Merchants previously restricted (19:20) to the coast could now do business across an entire Province and as the mugal Empire weakened further the company expanded so the company I think increasingly found itself sucked into a situation where partly to defend its existing settlements and factories and partly to ensure some kind of Law and Order in the surrounding region they had to take more and more of a political and Military role themselves and as the company grew its Affairs generated a mountain of paperwork every transaction recorded for scrutiny back in (20:04) London so it needed a large body of able young men to keep everything in order this or inpiring building was the ner center of the East India company’s Affairs in Bengal in here were based a group of men known as the writers they would been counters and Clarks noting down minutes of meetings and financial transactions all the tedious day-to-day business of the East India [Music] Company for the well-connected young Britain of the 1700s a job with a company was a free ticket on the gravy train to get a job as a writer all you (20:42) have to do is ingratiate yourself one of the company directors they were free to give the jobs to whoever they chose and that meant that family connection counted for everything they gave them to their sons their cousins their nephews and their associate Sons things like Merit or experience counted for nothing I shall be placed on the staff wear a cocked hat and laugh at the governor General’s jokes and a capital appointment will follow in due course the pay wasn’t great but you could do a bit of Wheeler dealing on the (21:21) side private trading was the way in which uh the East IND company incentivized its Workforce people uh were allowed to trade on their own account they’re allowed to take Goods out uh from Britain to Asia and then return with certain Goods which the company did not have exclusive control of so particularly precious stones and actually certain other spices they lend money to Indian Nobles at extortionate interest rates they speculate they profiteer um and they engage in trade and they use these India Company monopolies and its political (21:56) power to to um create very favorable trading conditions for [Music] themselves but a career in India came with considerable risk none of the company’s men were prepared for the dangers of a tropical climate they were greeted on arrival by a withering barrage of heat and disease it was said that during the hot season here in India it was as dangerous as placees anywhere in the world for humans to live here I passed the night in a bed which might be called a Chop House for mosquitoes the intemperance of the climate together with the excessive heat (22:43) of the Sun a very noxious to our health I had so bad a night of it I really expected it to be my last my stomach is so weak it refuses everything many who came to Kolkata ended up here in South Park Street Cemetery there’s so many stories of friendships love affairs families torn apart by death and disease just pick one out here John Blackiston was a junior officer in the company’s Army and he had a friend who he looked up to was a few years his senior called Lieutenant Rowley who was in Engineers Rowley got dentry and slowly (23:22) wasted away Blackiston wrote poor fellow he expired in my arms to one so young as myself and unaccustomed to such scenes this could not but be a most painful circumstance people grew to accept that death could be sudden we’ve known instances of dining with a gentleman at midday and being invited to his burial before supper time in one year alone more than a third of kolkata’s European population dieded during the rainy season the average lifespan of a Britain and Bengal was said to be two monsoons the company regularly shipped (24:09) blank tombstones from England to meet [Music] demand this is the dark twin of the East India company’s success this is the one they probably wouldn’t have wanted to talk about when they were recruiting those young men full of hes to come out here and Grow Rich and Powerful the company tried to help it supplied ships and factories with vast quantities of wine in the mistaken belief that alcohol would promote Health it didn’t help much but the men couldn’t have been more pleased and when the cellers ran dry there was always the (24:49) local brew toddy made from the sap of palm trees was meant to cure griping of the stomach then there was arak the locally brewed firat That was supposed to promote Health in young men and when it became clear that Peruvian bark quinine cured fevers people started taking that trbl was so bitter they found they had to mix it with sugar soda water gin and lemons the quintessentially British gin and tonic had been produced when men weren’t busy dying shuffling paperwork or raking in the cash they were getting smashed (25:29) hard drinking was a central part of their loou lifestyle spent a severe night of punch and having sung ourselves to sleep in our chairs we awoke next morning at 5:00 by the gun when we turned into our several nests to growl and keep our burning heads as cool as the weather would permit rampant alcoholism put paid to many a promising career more English fell in Hindustan by the intemperate and injudicious use of ardent Spirits than By The Sword drinking gambling and brawling they were the quintessential Englishman (26:09) abroad the staunchly Protestant company directors soon realized they had a problem while they cared little about their employes alcoholism they did care about their choice of women some of them were apparently taking up with the locals or possibly even worse the Catholic Daughters of Portuguese Traders this had to be dealt with and the company came up with a brilliant suggestion which was pack a ship full of British women and send them out here what could possibly go wrong the answer was just about everything one lady traveler divided (26:44) these women into two groups old maids of the shriveled and dry description and girls educated merely to cover the surface of their mental deformity the sort of women they could find who wanted to go and tended not to be terribly reliable and of course it was a surplus of men and so the women got out there and often had a wonderful time and sometimes behaved rather badly and so the East India Company by the 18th century put a stop to that scheme [Music] [Applause] [Music] company servants had no need of a Matchmaker in any case they were busy (27:41) forming attachments of their own the Allure of Bengali women was proving as potent as the local fir [Music] waterer the attachment of many European gentlemen to their native Mistresses is not to be described an infatuation beyond all comparison often [Music] prevails many Company Men adopted the local tradition of polygamy I have known various instances of two ladies being conjointly domesticated and one of an elderly military character who solaced himself with no less than 16 of all sorts and sizes [Music] many of these relationships lasted a (28:35) [Music] lifetime and by the middle of the 18th century 90% of company employees in India had local Partners many could now afford several Mistresses and a house full of servants right let’s go but something odd was going on they’d arrived here as humble Merchants but their Newfound wealth was having a bizarre effect they adopted the ostentatious flamboyant lifestyles of an Eastern Prince surrounding themselves with armies of servants being carried from place to place in a pacquin the pomposity and extravagance of these (29:17) white mugal knew no bounds much to the annoyance of their fellow countrymen many of the British inhabitants affect great Splendor in their mode of living they assume an air of much consequence and often treat the rest of their countrymen with super cilious arrogance I think this is my favorite picture from the period it shows a man who looks like a mugal empera sitting on a cushion smoking a hooker attended by servants master of all he surveys and his luscious robes and turban but that is no mugal emperor in fact it’s an (29:50) accountant from Yorkshire his name’s John woell he’s living the dream while some lived like overblown maharajas others like Major General Charles Stewart engaged with India on a more profound level Charles Stewart came out here from his native Island aged 19 and immediately fell in love with the place he had a house here on Wood Street which he turned into a museum filling it up with Indian artifacts and carvings he was happy to show anybody around and share his passion for all things Indian Stuart found the exoticism of Hindu (30:31) myths irresistible whenever I look around me in the vast region of Hindu mythology it appears the most complete and ample system of moral allegory that the world has ever produced Stuart’s encounter with India changed his life within a year of his arrival he had discarded Christianity and become a [Music] Hindu Hindu Che as he became known learned the local languages dressed like a local would have been very comfortable in places like this he took a local Woman as a wife and had a brood of mixed race children he even hired a group of (31:09) brahmins Hindu Scholars to prepare the family’s food traditional Hindu [Music] manner Stuart wasn’t unusual in embracing his new home many Britain and Indians accepted each other in an atmosphere of mutual understanding the British came to India before the 19th century very much as explorers adventurers and people out to make their money and they encountered a very old and very complex civilization and they were often impressed by it and so they didn’t feel that they were in any way Superior to Indians they were just (31:46) simply one of a number of groups jostling in India to try and earn a living and to try and make their way and in the final analysis integration was good for business in any case the company’s attention was focused on a far bigger problem an escalating military confrontation with the French the British and French had set up trading posts within a few miles of each other the French at pondichery and chandernagore the British at Madras and Kolkata in 1756 rivalry exploded into open Warfare driven by antagonism over (32:26) Colonial interests the s Years War raged from Europe to North America and across the world’s [Music] oceans but in India the Ultimate Prize was control over [Music] trade the merchants of the East India Company had traditionally tried to avoid war its costs were certain but its outcomes far less so was bad for business but as the French grew more threatening in the subcontinent the company realized it needed to get more serious about the military side of things and the motly crews guarding its fors in India Wen up to scratch what it (33:09) needed was a serious standing army the company decided to strengthen its Garrison at Fort St George in January 1748 150 British troops arrived in Madras led by Major Stringer Lawrence an erasable old Soldier known affection as old [ __ ] he’s 50 years old he’s fought in the low lands in Spain and also in the jackaby rebellion and he he is a man with great knowledge of military Affairs and his job is really to reform the uh company troops out in India he begins by forming them into companies each commanded by an officer (33:52) and those companies are equipped trained and disciplined exactly like British troops would be and of course the end result of all of this is it becomes a much more effective fighting force his new Army was led by European officers but most of the troops were Indians known as seys from the Persian word for Soldier Stringer Lawrence is seen as the grandfather of the modern Indian army many units are the direct descendants of those he founded 250 years [Music] ago one Young soldier in Lawrence’s new Army was the future national hero Clive (34:32) of India the young Robert Clive arrives in India just 19 years old in 1744 he’s a junior tally clerk for the East India Company uh which is pretty much the bottom of the Civil Heap and he’s probably gone out there a little bit of a disgruntled man he’s been a bit of a tear away at school he comes from a relatively impecunious Shropshire Gentry family at first CL had been desperately homesick and hated the Searing heat if I should be so blessed as to revisit again my own country but more especially Manchester the center of all (35:09) my wishes all that I could hope or desire for would be presented before me in one view he was known as a man who had a relatively short temper he was as we discover in his later career a man with tremendous energy Vigor and resolution and this must have seemed a pretty crushing way to begin his career Clive would be the driving force in transforming the company from commercial giant to the dominant political power in India in 1756 his great adversary was the mugal ruler of Bengal sirua lowed the British and bitterly resented the company’s hold on (35:54) Kolkata in June he attacked the city Kolkata fell within hours and on the evening of June the 20th 146 British prisoners were taken to Fort William now the site of the government Post Office 100 yards from this spot stands a grim reminder of what happened next the most Vivid account we have was left by a man called John Zephaniah holwell had been the chief magistrate of kolkat had been left in charge and he and his men were marched into a cell just 18t wide at gunpoint it became known simply as the black hole and what (36:36) happened in there became one of the most infamous stories in the whole of British imperial [Music] history it said the prisoners crushed together suffocating and fighting to stay upright were gripped by claustrophobic Terror the heat was almost unbearable try and slake his thirst holwell took off his sweat soaked shirt and rang it out into his mouth other people trampled on the weakened bodies of their comrades desperately trying to reach the two small windows at the top of the wall and gulp down some fresh air (37:20) it was a night of unspeakable suffering and [Music] cruelty when the door were flung open at dawn the next day the cell was filled with corpses according to holwell just 23 had survived towards the end of the account this particularly memorable line he writes but oh sir what word shall I adopt to tell you the whole that my soul suffered at reviewing the Dreadful destruction around me I will not attempt it and indeed tears stopped my pen and news of what had happened to their fellow countrymen at the hands of a barbarous Indian despot electrified (38:04) congregations right across Britain this after all was a generation that was starting to believe that Britain never never never shall be [Music] slaves determined to reassert Supremacy Clive recaptured Kolkata and confronted sirj at a village called placy 120 Mi north of the city in what would become a decisive moment in the history of the East India [Music] Company at placy Clive was terribly outnumbered by more than 10 to one but Clive had a plan that didn’t just rely on Military might alone he’d been in (38:52) secret correspondence with one of the naab’s key left tenants the commander of his cavalry a man called Mir Jafar the deal is done between Clive and Mir Jaffer that a certain key part of the fight uh Mir Jaffa will will come onto his side in other words he’ll leave his chief and in return for putting him on the throne the company will not only be paid vast sums of money and we are talking about Fantastical sums but also it will be given a free reign in terms of its [Music] trade it was all over in a matter of for (39:28) hours but had little to do with military might M Jafar the traitor had been paid off and he ensured that the majority of nb’s troops took no part in the battle he was then installed as Britain’s puppet this opened up the richest province of India to the company Robert Clive regarded this maav alian maneuvering as the Pinnacle of his career Clive and the company were Now Rich better still in exchange for a single payment of £270,000 the company was granted the right to manage the dewani or the revenue and civil (40:06) administration of Bengal this allowed them to collect the land tax from the entire population of Bengal 10 million people it effectively turned them into the de facto government Robert Clive estimated that it’ be worth 1.7 million every year with control over the revenues of India’s richest Province the company’s role had profoundly changed it’s the point at which the East India Company really moves from being a trading Enterprise to an actual ruler of territory the danani was a license to print money after the costs of (40:47) administering Ben Gul had been met the company’s profit margin was 49% the commercial floodgates had opened but their Good Fortune would soon end a natural Calamity was about to throw the honorable company into the biggest crisis in its history famine had long been a part of life in Bengal but one that began in the late 1760s was turned into a full blown humanitarian Disaster by the East India Company it’s hard to come to terms with even after all these years but while the nabobs were back in Britain buying (41:37) stately homes throwing parties filling them with silver wine and art the people of Bengal who were paying for all that were experiencing some of the most appalling conditions [Music] imaginable a prolonged drought and a poor harvest caused a famine that continued for three long years the worst in living memory the agony of the Bengali people is described in Vivid detail the East India Company watched and recorded everything 7,600 dying in Kolkata in the last uh 6 weeks double that number in other towns in the province and then (42:25) these chilling terrible awful words hunger drives many of them to such distress that the strongest frequently in some parts of the country fall upon the weaker and devour them so we’re talking about cannibalism we’re talking about cannibalism here they’re forced into those kinds of horrible means of staying alive and and then in contrast the next paragraph says balls concerts and all public entertainments ought to side at this time of General scarcity but I’m sorry to say they have not and under the doors and windows of these (43:05) places of amusement lie many dead bodies and others again in all the agonies of death Despair and want so as you’re going out to a concer or something you’re stepping over destitute dead and dying people piles of dead people did the East India Company help or did they make things worse they make things worse they rais the taxes on agricultural produce they ban the hoarding of Rice and Grain which were traditionally used to tied over the population uh through periods of scarcity they ripped up some of the food crops to plant much more (43:39) profitable Indigo and even more profitable opium and finally some of their junior servants started to speculate and profiteer from the sale of of uh rice and uh grain selling it out of the province uh add grossly inflated prices the letters reveal where the company’s priorities really lay while they Lament The distresses which the inhabitants may be reduced thereby they can’t divest themselves of anxious apprehensions concerning the effects which a continuation of the drought may have on the collections of (44:23) our revenues so they’re thinking profits rather than um disaster relief it’s estimated that between 2 million and 10 million people died a salutary lesson on the dangers of unchecked corporate power you have streams and streams of people who are dying walking to um company officials saying help us you know kind of you are now the rulers you need to do something we you have responsibility for us and the British do very little nobody was ultimately brought to account for it but there was certainly a sense (45:01) that the the nature of East India Company government at the time had exacerbated the famine that it it had made things worse um if it hadn’t actually caused [Music] it the famine was a human tragedy and a financial disaster the Bengal economy collapsed the company’s income plummeted its share price crashed and all dividend payments were suspended the bubble was burst people wanted to know why how could this have happened Parliament set up its own inquiry and a scapegoat was lined up Robert Clive Britain’s richest (45:45) man he became seen as the sort of the leader of of the neighbor hubs and was nicknamed uh Lord vultan denounced for enriching himself with Indian loot Clive was hold before Parliament he asked his accusers to remember the situation that he’d been in an opulent City had Lin at his Mercy he’d been shown through vaults full of treasure gold and precious stones on every side he finished by saying by God Mr chairman I stand astonished at my own moderation well if Clive was greedy or corrupt he certainly wasn’t the only one (46:20) in the House of Commons he was acquitted in fact he was even thanked for services to his country but like a plot twist in a Victorian melodrama his life ended in tragedy in November 1774 Clive was found dead at his London home he’d suffered depression for much of his life and he’d become an opium addict it’s very likely that he committed suicide Dr Samuel Johnson wrote that his crimes had driven him to slit his own throat it was a scandalous and pitiful end to a life of extraordinary if controversial (46:59) achievement accused of corruption incompetence and greed the company’s reputation was in tatters and there was worse to come the crisis that was affecting the company really came to a head in 1772 um where there was a failure of a major Scottish Bank the the air bank which created a credit crunch about 30 other banks in fact failed and that led to a major shortage of money in the economy the company had to go repeatedly to the bank of England for loans to Tye over they were very indebted now starved of funds the (47:32) world’s greatest company had run out of cash there was only one possible way out massive government bailout for reasons that are spookily familiar it was decided that the East India Company was too big to fail the British government rescued the company with public money today equivalent to 176 million but its powers were progressively cailed the India Act of 1784 transferred its executive management to an independent Board of control answerable to Parliament all Kickbacks were banned the British state was now pulling (48:16) the strings instead of chances like Robert Clive the British government would now send out its own more reliable people to run India the governor general here in Kata would rule Supreme given sweeping new powers in Revenue diplomacy and War it was nothing less than the birth of Empire [Music].