Reza Khan , for his part, had reason to welcome the governorship of Verelst, for, since their first meeting at Sitakund in January 1761 they had remained personal friends* It was Verelst9s testimony to the Khan*s abilities as an administrator and also to his integrity in financial natters which, more than anything else, had drawn Vansittart9 s attention to the Khan* Verelst9s Influence was most probably an important factor in neutralising Clive9g initial prejudice against the Khan in May 17&5*Indeed thoir long-standing personal relationship seems to have ripened into
something more s when Verelst visited Murshidabad as governor he stayed at the Khan’s palace, Nishat Bagh ,while Verelst9s descendants in Ireland 1* Reza Khan, however, sought Verelst9s advice in the matter since the Raja
of that “obscure country44 had never before sought refuge in B^n^al.The Khan who had already sent some troops to the border suggested that he should be reinstated and helped against his enemies who were assisted by the Rajas of Bhutan and Amarkot*His country was very large and it extended as far as Nopal*The Raja sho\Lld be, he sxnggested,made to psty sjc annual tribute and agree to allow export of timber*(Roza Khan’s letter reed* 12 Peb 1767)# ££0,11,434*
2o Jawahir Singh’s letter to Reza Khan,reods12 Apr 1767* CPC,11*296* 3, Verelst to Reza Khan,30 Mar 1767,(CPC,II,241),
4, Alivardl Khan had put a stop to Maratha invasions of Bengal by agreeing to pay a sum as Chauth( literally, a fourth)to the Nagpur court besides putting Orissa(minus Midnapur)under a Maratha-Nawab condominium* During war against Mir Qasim the Calcutta government had offered to stand sur^ ty for the Bengal Chauth and urged the Marathas not to offer help to Mir Qasin0 Clive had sent M r Zain ul Abidin, a relation of Reza Khan as envoy to Nagpur*Verelst did not directly deal with the Maratha envoy,but took him to Murshidabad and there held a conference on the matter along with the Nawab, Reza Khan,Zain ul Abidino(CPC0I I , 7 7 t 9 4 , 1 4 1 ,416) 5*For detail, HNS 102* 6*For example letter to Smith 21 I ay*BSC
14.)
possessed a letter in the handwriting of Reza Khan's eldest son, which read "Hausin Ally Khaun presents his compliments with his first essay
of English writing to his good friend Mr* Verelst in wishing him a happy new year", 1
Moreover, the good relations between the two men does not seem to have been based upon any corrupt bargains botween then* Verelst, after he had purchased the private business of Sumner^ did ask the Khan to get his offioers to help him in realising the balances due at various Arangs or
2
trade centres, and on another occasion the Khan lent money to friends of Verelst, Verelst standing as surety and joint signatory to the debts* The Khan also bought the Khairati Bagh in Calcutta from Verelst* But these were minor acts of friendship , not the exploitation of claims such as the Khan's dependence on Verelst might have made possible* The real value of the good relationship between them was that it prevented the growth of any mutual misunderstandings when circumstances became increasingly
difficult for Reza Khan and Verelst alike0
At the bottom of many of the difficulties of both the Khan and
Verelst was Francis Sykes, the man who had taken a large part in renderinf the position of the Khan secure, and who as one of the two survivors,with himself , of Clive's Select Committee , should have provided useful support
for ¥orolflt*Hi* pursuit of private trade and of enhanced Company revenues
was to embarrass and entangle both*
The Court of Directors, it will be remembered, had on 8 February 1764
positively forbidden to their servants in Bengal all trade in salt,betel- nut and tobaoco, and in June 1764 and February 1763 had reiterated the ban* However in August 1765 Clive and the Select Committee had proceeded 1* The original was in Ireland until 1908, but a transcript has beem
preserved in the archives of the India Office, London* HFS,739, ! 1e 2, Verelst's agents were Huzurimul's goaastahs ,Surdas Sinfch at Rangpur,
Maina Ram at Raj ganj, Raghunath Jugal at J agannathpur, and Sukhdev Majumdar at Handial*(Verelst to Reza Khan 27 Apr 1767«CPC*II*364) 3, The details of the transactions are mot oloar*A letter from Reza Khan
to Nabakrlshna(CPC,II,783B) in Jan 1768 speaks of Verelst having asked the Khpn to help M* Chevalier with a loan of Rs 1,20,000 which Chevali er had asked from Verdst*Reza Khan found it "impossible*te procure the sum*But Harwell, Verelst'a attorney at Dacca in 1774,spehks of "joint bond" and assures Verelst (letter of 30 Nov 1774) that he would adjust the engagement ^between you and Mahomed Reza KhanNte the satisfaction ef"the Nabob without involving yourself"(HPP,XII, 190)*0ne John Knott's l«tter(frM Lenden «n 2? Mar 1774)says that tha Khan hai lent Jhree lakhs «f Sicca rupees te a ieint eenoerm(N.M.Rhe8a.es oit* 11 26-29)
147
te organise a society of trade with a nonopoly of those three commedi- ties. The capital stock of the society was then divided into 5&i shares distributed among the sixty-one most senior members of the Calcutta government, Clive himself receiving five shares , Sumner and Camae three, the ten Councillors and two Colonels two each*^ Rosa Khan was made to issue one hundred and six parwanas facilitating the trade* The more junior
servants of the Company were excluded from membership of the society. They and the free merchants were then further provoked when by a regulation of 5 October 1765* European servants of the Company mot employed in any factory : and all free merchants trading in Bengal under the Company1 s protection and license were oalled back to Calcutta* The regulation
applied to the junior servants, spread out in the different Arangs (trading posts) and out*stations9 except suoh as were engaged in providing the
silk investment for the Company* Moreover no one was allowed to send Gumastahs or native agents into the interior of the country without authority from the Calcutta government*
The junior Company servants and merchants were incenaedf for they had been deprived of extensive means of enriching themselves .The instance of William Bolts may serve to illustrate the extent of the private trade thus forf&it t Bolts, a Butch adventurer, who had been in the Company,s
2
service since 1760, had made £ 90*000 in six years and in 1767 he had over eight lakhs of rupees invested in the countryside* The Company1s investment in Bengal about the same time, as William Kacguire told at a Parliamentary enquiry in 1?67t was about forty lakhs per year at the rate
3
of eight lakhs per ship and five ships per year* It waB no wonder that Bolts had found it more profitable to resign from the Company9 s service
a
on 24 November 1766 to concentrate on trade as a private merchant? The Company1s service was not as paying as private trade* The salary of a Councillor, Clive had observed, is "scarcely three hundred pounds per
annum s and it is well known that he cannot live in the country ^sf Bengal^ for less than three thousand pounds* The same proportion holds among other
servants".^
1* Below the Council, the second category of Company servants comprising 18 men held 12 shares, and the third category of 28 men held the remain ing shares.(I.Bolts. Considerations,170*72)*
2 0 N.l.Hallward, William Bolts, 3
3o Macguire was in Bengal for 20 years until 1764{Oot)*Add Mss 18469, f 32 4* N.l.Hallward, William Bolta.45. Qjietedi Forrest, Clive0IIP300»
148
The orders were the sere falling because though issued in the name ef high sounding principles , they did not in fact stop private trade or the Monopolization of the inland trade* The measures merely transferred the gains of trade to the senior servants of the Company, to the men in
authority* Thus while the orders of 5 October were being enforced, Clive was sending out ten European agents for the Society of Trade* Those
Europeans who had influence with the members of the Council or the Seleot Committee were also able to secure exemptions and repeated extensions of the time in which to wind up their affairs* Thus Barwell retained his station during the remainder of Clive9 s stay in Bengal , thanks to the influence of Verelst exerted in his favour! The regulations about the residence outside Calcutta and the movement of Gumastahs thus became an instrument of patronage*
Reza Khan found himself involved in the conflict between the different groups ef the Company9s servants over private trade0He had facilitated the operation of the Society of Trade, he had provided the occasion for the regulations of 5 October 17^3* This last he had done by writing at the very beginning of October, asking Clive and the Select Committee that
"ordersjnay be issued to the gentlemen of the factories of Jahangir- nagar^ DaccaJ and Lakhipur ^Lakshmipur in Noakhali^to see that none
ef the dependants of the factories lend money to the zamindara, etc*, without the knowledge of the m i l * or hold any farms* or interfere in the affairs of the country, or send any people into the distriots and make a disturbance* Orders may also be issued to the effect that what soever demands the dependants of the factories have upon the zaaindars, etc*, they must lay the aocount thereof before Jaearat Khan, the Naib at Jahangirnagar* that he may oblige the zamindara to pay whatever is just** *1*
It is clear that the Khan in so writing was* seeking to strengthen the
country government ( and particularly his own administration in Dacca) and
,y
to make it really effective, and that he wanted restrictions to bo placed upon the native agents of the factories and not upon their English masters* Indeed* though wo do not know how his relations wore with the English at Lakshmipur, it is certain that he was on cordial terms with those at Dacca. and especially with Cartier* the chief of Dacca* His complaint* however* was made the occasion for the recall of junior servants and free merchants 1*Richard Barwell to his father, 1 Sep 1766* BPP* IX,89-9f>*
2*Roza Khan9s letter,recdsd Oct 17^5* Th® quotation is from the summary in CPC. I, 2715© Alee BSC 5 Oct 1765*
149
te Calcutta,The odium of that move was thus cast upon the Khan, the mere so, as another provision of the regulations, the Committee laid down that if any one overstayed the period of grace to 21 Ootober allowed, the Khan and his officers would he free to " take what measures he thinks proper to send them down to Calcutta", The Khan was also supplied with
2