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THE NEW ATTACK ON THE EAST INDIAN TRADE 469 
European agent was five removes distant from the workman. AD 2s 
Each of the intermediaries obtained his commission; the 
complicated machinery of trade gave rise on the one hand 
to great oppression of the labourer, while on the other if 
afforded frequent opportunities for malversation and fraud. 
The officials of the Company were organised in four different 
classes. They entered as writers; after five years’ service 
they became factors; three years later, junior merchants, 
and after three years senior merchants. The high official 
positions were given to senior merchants!, and promotion 
was almost entirely by seniority, The patronage which the 
Directors were able to exercise was a very valuable power, 
and was of more importance to many of them than the 
wealth which accrued from their ownership of shares in the 
Company. Under these circumstances there can be little and oo 
wonder that Clive, at the beginning of his second adminis- rampant. 
tration, should have reported that the whole administra- 
tion was corrupt? or that the Directors complained of the 
“deplorable state to which our affairs were on the point of 
being reduced, from the corruption and rapacity of our 
servants, and the universal depravity of manners through- 
out the settlement. The general relaxation of all discipline Te mal- 
and obedience, both military and civil, was tending to a aid 
dissolution of all government... We must add that we 
think the vast fortunes, acquired in the inland trade, had 
been obtained by a series of the most tyrannic and op- 
pressive conduct that ever was known in any age or 
country?” 
These disclosures aroused wide-spread indignation, which 
was fomented by retired servants, and by proprietors 
who were discontented with their position. As a result 
a Parliamentary enquiry was undertaken, and an Act 
a8 
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arl. 
Mill, op. est. 1m. 16. 
: Both the Portuguese and the Dutch had to contend with similar difficulties 
in regard to their officials. The utter demoralisation of the Portuguese who 
settled in India was perhaps the chief reason of the destruction of their power. 
Raynal, History (1777), 1. 141. On the Dutch, see Raynal, 1. 266. 
8 Mill, rr. 279. It was one of the great achievements of Lord Cornwallis that 
he raised the tone of the Indian service in such a remarkable manner, Chesney, 
Indian Polity (1868), 23.