Regulating Act 1773
#Historicalbackground
◇ governor of Bengal will now be Governor-General of Bengal.
◇ Created an Executive Council of 4 members to assist him.
◇ First Governor General was Warren Hastings.
◇ Establishment of Supreme court in Calcutta. Comprising 1 CJI and 3 other Judges.
◇ Prohibited the Servants from engaging in any Private Trades and taking Bribes from Natives.
◇ Court of Directors will report about the functioning of EIC to Government.
🏮 LIMITATION OF PORTUGAL.
#Portuguese
📍 Portugal was a small country, and though developed rapidly in the field of commerce, its financial resources were limited. German and Italian merchants and merchant houses became the principal agents for distributing all over Europe the eastern goods brought to Lisbon by the Portuguese.
📍 Demand in Asia for European goods which could be exchanged for purchase of pepper and other eastern goods was limited. Hence, precious metals, especially silver had to be exported. But portuguese did not had Silver.
📍 The share of the private Portuguese traders in the Portuguese trade to Europe rose sharply, amounting to over 90 per cent of the total.
📍 The expectation of the Portuguese king that Portuguese control of the coastal trade of India would pay for the export of pepper and other eastern goods to Europe also remained a misnomer.
CAPTURE OF HOOGHLY
#Portuguese
📍 Based on imperial farman circa 1759, the Portuguese were settled near satgaon in Bengal to carry trading activities.
📍 They monopolised the manufacture of salt, built a custom house of their own and started enforcing strictly the levy of duty on tobacco, which had become an important article of trade since its introduction at the beginning of the 17th century.
📍 The Portuguese not only made money as traders but also started a cruel slave trade by purchasing or seizing Hindu and Muslim children, whom they brought up as Christians. In the course of their nefarious activities, they seized two slave girls of Mumtaz Mahal.
📍 Shah Jahan ordered the Bengal governor Qasim Khan to take action against the Portuguese. A siege of Hooghly finally led to the Portuguese fleeing.
📍 The Mughals suffered a loss of 1,000 men, but also took 400 prisoners to Agra. The prisoners were offered the option to convert to Islam or become slaves.
PORTUGUESE LOSE FAVOUR WITH THE MUGHALS.
📍 In 1608, Captain William Hawkins with his ship Hector reached Surat. He brought a letter from James I, King of England, to Jahangir requesting permission to do business in India.
📍 Hawkins knew the Turki language well, Pleased with Hawkins, Jahangir appointed him as a mansabdar of 400 at a salary of Rs 30,000.
📍 Grant of trading facilities to the English offended the Portuguese. Portuguese stopped the English ships from entering the port of Surat.
📍 In 1612, the English ship Dragon under Captain Best along with a little ship, the Osiander, successfully fought a Portuguese fleet. Jahangir, learnt of the English success and was greatly impressed.
📍 In 1613, the Portuguese offended Jahangir by capturing Mughal ships, imprisoning Muslims, and plundering the cargoes. Jahangir ordered Muqarrab Khan, who was then in charge of Surat, to obtain compensation.
📍 During Shah Jahan's reign, the advantages which Portuguese enjoyed in the Mughal court were lost forever.
RELIGIOUS POLICY OF PORTUGUESE.
#Portuguese
📍 Portuguese brought with them the zeal to promote Christianity and the wish to persecute all Muslims.
📍 Intolerant towards the Muslims, the Portuguese were initially quite tolerant towards the Hindus. However, over time, after the introduction of the Inquisition in Goa, there was a change and Hindus were also persecuted.
📍 But, in spite of this intolerant behaviour, the Jesuits made a good impression at the court of Akbar, mainly due to the Mughal emperor’s interest in questions of theology.
📍 In September 1579, Akbar forwarded a letter to the authorities at Goa requesting them to send two learned priests. The Church authorities in Goa eagerly accepted the invitation, seeing in it a chance to convert the emperor to Christianity, and with him his court and the people.
📍 Jesuit fathers, Rodolfo Aquaviva and Antonio Monserrate reached Fatehpur Sikri in 1580. They went back in 1583.
PORTUGUESE ADMINISTRATION IN INDIA.
#Portuguese
📍 The head of the administration was the viceroy who served for three years, with his secretary and, in later years, a council.
📍 Next in importance came the Vedor da Fazenda, responsible for revenues and the cargoes and dispatch of fleets.
📍 The fortresses, from Africa to China, were under captains, assisted by ‘factors’, whose power was increased by the difficulties of communication and was too often used for personal ends.
PORTUGUESE STATE
#EuropeanarrivalinIndia
📍 Coastal parts of India had come under Portuguese power within fifty years of Vasco da Gama’s arrival.
📍 Portuguese had occupied some sixty miles of coast around Goa.
📍 On west coast from Mumbai to Daman and Diu to the approaches to Gujarat, they controlled narrow tract with four important ports and hundreds of towns and villages.
📍 In the south, they had under them a chain of seaport fortresses and trading-posts like Mangalore, Cannanore, Cochin, and Calicut.
📍 And though their power in Malabar was not consolidated, it was enough to ensure influence or control over the local rulers who held the spice growing land.
📍 The Portuguese established further military posts and settlements on the east coast at San Thome (in Chennai) and Nagapatnam (in Andhra).
📍 The Portuguese, the first Europeans to come to India, were also the last to leave this land. It was 1961 before the Government of India recaptured Goa, Daman and Diu from them.
