Previous Year Question

Statement 1 is correct. The Charter Act of 1813 ended the East India Company's general monopoly over trade with India and opened Indian trade to other British merchants. However, the Company retained its monopoly over trade with China and the tea trade. The original parliamentary resolutions of 1813 explicitly continued restrictions on the China trade and preserved the exclusive tea trade of the Company.

Statement 2 is correct. The Act of 1813 was also an important constitutional clarification. The Company was allowed to retain possession of the Indian territories and their revenues for another 20 years, but this was expressly stated to be without prejudice to the “undoubted sovereignty” of the British Crown over those territories. This did not mean that Company administration ended in 1813; administration remained with the Company while ultimate sovereignty was asserted for the Crown. The UK Parliament's historical account also records this provision of the 1813 Charter.

Statement 3 is incorrect. The revenues of India were not transferred from the Company to direct control of the British Parliament in 1813. The Act continued the Company's possession of the Indian territories and their revenues for another 20 years. Parliamentary statutory supervision over the Company had already increased, particularly after the Acts of 1773 and 1784, but it is incorrect to say that Indian revenues “were now controlled by the British Parliament” as a new provision of the 1813 Act. Formal transfer of Company government and Indian territories to the Crown occurred under the Government of India Act, 1858.