A new capital city and a new structure of authority in Bengal were direct consequences of British rule. British trade created some new employment opportunities and offered potentially more profitable uses for some of their land. The British had a great effect on the Indians. The reaction the Indians had to the British conquest proves this. In turn, the British benefited highly from Bengal. For instance, Bengal financed a large part of British naval and military operations and important parts of British trade beyond its own frontiers.
The British empire in India was established by a private trading firm, the East India Company, which governed with the consent of Parliament until 1858. The company bought a strip of sandy beach at Madras in 1639, acquired a lease to the port of Bombay from King Charles II in 1668, and in 1690 secured from the Mogul empire permission to build a settlement on a muddy flatland that eventually became Calcutta. …
