0:00:06 > 0:00:09Just over 400 years ago, a group of London merchants arrived
0:00:09 > 0:00:13here on the Indian coast hoping to do some peaceful trading.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Those early pioneers dreamt of making huge profits.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22From humble beginnings, this rag-tag band of adventurers
0:00:22 > 0:00:25secured land from Indian rulers,
0:00:25 > 0:00:28formed alliances with local craftsmen
0:00:28 > 0:00:31and built from scratch a commercial enterprise
0:00:31 > 0:00:33to export goods to Britain.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36The East India Company was part of this tremendous
0:00:36 > 0:00:38globalisation of the world
0:00:38 > 0:00:40which really started in the 17th century,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42and speeded up in the 18th and 19th centuries.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Over 200 years, the company grew into a commercial titan.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Its wealth rivalled that of the British state.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53It had its own army,
0:00:53 > 0:00:58and eventually ruled over 400 million people.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02Its trade was vital to Britain's commercial success
0:01:02 > 0:01:06and its shares were the centre point of London's financial markets.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09It revolutionised the British lifestyle.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12The East India Company changed the way we dress,
0:01:12 > 0:01:13it changed the way we eat,
0:01:13 > 0:01:15it changed the way we socialise.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21And, by accident, created one of the most powerful empires in history.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27They were instrumental in making Britain THE maritime superpower.
0:01:27 > 0:01:32They helped lay the foundations for our own global trading system today
0:01:32 > 0:01:35and they also helped to make English the world's language.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Every step of the company's rise is recorded in a unique archive.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44"What a lucky fellow you are, Charley, going to India -
0:01:44 > 0:01:47"you lead such a luxurious life!
0:01:47 > 0:01:50"Why, you dog, when you come home you will be a rich man."
0:01:50 > 0:01:54But the letters and diaries also chart its fall into profiteering,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56nepotism and corruption.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58"Every ancient friend of the family
0:01:58 > 0:02:01"hoped I should live to be a major general."
0:02:01 > 0:02:05And eventually a chilling story of drug-running and famine.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08"Numbers of famishing wretches followed our army
0:02:08 > 0:02:11"for the sole purpose of existing on the offal of the camp."
0:02:11 > 0:02:15This is the story of the greatest company the world has ever known.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28This is where it all started.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30On December 31st, 1600,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33The East India Company was established by royal charter
0:02:33 > 0:02:35in London
0:02:35 > 0:02:39and granted a monopoly on trade with the East by Queen Elizabeth I.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42It was the beginning of a new age in Britain's history -
0:02:42 > 0:02:45an age of speculation and profit,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48enterprise and competition.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Capitalism would change forever
0:02:51 > 0:02:53the lives of its people and politics.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Trade would make Britain great
0:02:56 > 0:03:00and turn London into the richest city in the world.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05The company built a series of massive warehouses
0:03:05 > 0:03:07across the City of London to store its goods.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09There was Lime Street,
0:03:09 > 0:03:10Fenchurch Street, Seething Lane.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12Then when they filled up,
0:03:12 > 0:03:14they built more warehouses near the Tower of London
0:03:14 > 0:03:16and here on Cutler Street.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20These buildings were filled with muslins, calicos and silks
0:03:20 > 0:03:22from India and the Orient.
0:03:24 > 0:03:25Thanks to the East India Company,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28exotic goods like spices from Indonesia,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30tea and porcelain from China,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32became part of everyday life.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37Every year, huge merchant ships of the East India Company,
0:03:37 > 0:03:38known as East Indiamen,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42would leave from right here, loaded down with silver bullion
0:03:42 > 0:03:44and British merchandise,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48heading up the Thames and out to sea to trade with the East.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53On board were young men filled with hope.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Who they were and what happened to them
0:03:55 > 0:03:58are questions we can now answer.
0:03:58 > 0:03:59Thousands of them left behind
0:03:59 > 0:04:03an extraordinary record of their daily lives in documents
0:04:03 > 0:04:05now held at the British Library.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07"Snakes have been found in the beds
0:04:07 > 0:04:09"where gentlemen were about to repose.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11"A lady was called in by her servant to see a snake
0:04:11 > 0:04:13"that lay contentedly between two of her infants
0:04:13 > 0:04:16"while sleeping in a small cot.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19"This perilous situation produced the utmost anxiety."
0:04:19 > 0:04:20In following their dreams,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24these young men would inadvertently forge an empire.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27"Wealth and honour will pour upon me
0:04:27 > 0:04:30"and to crown my felicity, some high-born damsel
0:04:30 > 0:04:32"will eventually become my wife."
0:04:32 > 0:04:35An empire that would create thousands of winners,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37but millions of losers.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41"The vulture rising reluctantly from its bloody banquet
0:04:41 > 0:04:44"flapped its broad wings in anger and joined the wild chorus
0:04:44 > 0:04:47"with discordant cries."
0:04:47 > 0:04:51Wills, diaries, letters - more than 100,000 manuscripts -
0:04:51 > 0:04:53fill nine miles of shelving.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57The letters and diaries of the people who lived and died
0:04:57 > 0:05:00under the company's flag
0:05:00 > 0:05:02are the lost voices of the East India Company.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09Historian Robert Hutchinson has spent six years studying them.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of wills
0:05:12 > 0:05:16of company employees, and all of them give insight
0:05:16 > 0:05:19into life working for the company.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Most of these documents have never been seen before.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28They put us in direct contact with the men and women of the company -
0:05:28 > 0:05:31a unique glimpse of our social history.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34They're very graphic accounts of the attitudes
0:05:34 > 0:05:39and the beliefs and the commitment
0:05:39 > 0:05:42to the lives they'd made for themselves in India.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44They are extraordinarily graphic.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46You've been through all of them?
0:05:46 > 0:05:49Not all of them, but it's a lifetime's work.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53They're just fragments of personal testimony.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56But pieced together, they paint a vivid portrait
0:05:56 > 0:05:59of daily life in the service of the Honourable Company.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Armed with these letters and diaries I'm going on a journey
0:06:05 > 0:06:07to retrace the footsteps of this band of adventurers,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11charting the rise and fall of the world's greatest company.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30One country above all would play a pre-eminent role in that story...
0:06:32 > 0:06:35..and become the jewel in the company's crown -
0:06:35 > 0:06:37India.
0:06:44 > 0:06:50Our story began in 1639 at an unlikely spot on the east coast.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53A place that became known as Madraspatnam.
0:06:56 > 0:06:57When the company arrived here
0:06:57 > 0:07:01it wasn't pursuing dreams of conquest or empire,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04but looking for a secure base from which to conduct trade,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07and one of its employees, Francis Day,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10was convinced that this was the right spot.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15And with good reason.
0:07:15 > 0:07:16This is the Coromandel Coast -
0:07:16 > 0:07:21a name synonymous with diamonds, pearls and the finest cotton.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24In mid-17th century Europe,
0:07:24 > 0:07:26Indian cotton was the height of fashion.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30It was cheap, colourful and hard-wearing.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32A fortune could be made exporting it.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37Francis Day claimed a section of beach and set up shop.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Though he may have had other things on his mind.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45This lusty young man had a girlfriend nearby
0:07:45 > 0:07:47and he was keen to see her as often as possible.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51He even threatened to resign unless the company accepted his suggestion.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55Not for the last time, human history turned on an affair of the heart.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01But this was hardly the place to start a trading post.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03A dangerous sand bar,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06just off the coast, would cause ships to capsize or run aground.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09And if you made it ashore...
0:08:09 > 0:08:10it wasn't much better!
0:08:11 > 0:08:14"They have no drinkable water within a mile of them,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17"the sea often threatening destruction on one side,
0:08:17 > 0:08:19"and the river in the rainy season
0:08:19 > 0:08:22"inundations on the other.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24"The sun from April to September scorching hot.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29"Madraspatnam is one of the most incommodious places I ever saw."
0:08:32 > 0:08:34Incommodious or not,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37the company had established a vital foothold in south India -
0:08:37 > 0:08:39and began to trade.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44They brought in what was the chief product of this area
0:08:44 > 0:08:46from their point of view -
0:08:46 > 0:08:49weavers and dyers to manufacture hand-loom cloth.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51And this was the biggest export from here.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Within a year, 300 Bengali weavers had set up shop,
0:08:57 > 0:09:02alongside a motley crew of publicans and prostitutes.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05A handful of Englishmen were busy exporting cloth and spices
0:09:05 > 0:09:07back home for sale in London -
0:09:07 > 0:09:10much to the delight of the company's shareholders.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15They could send their ships out here, fill the holds with spices,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17and hopefully return rich men.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19It was a very lucrative trade -
0:09:19 > 0:09:22one that had been exploited by other European powers
0:09:22 > 0:09:24for quite a long time now.
0:09:24 > 0:09:25But, by making a monopoly,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28they could ensure there'd be no domestic opposition
0:09:28 > 0:09:31to threaten the shareholders' profits.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Even so, the company's investors were taking a huge gamble.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Each voyage could take two years or more -
0:09:39 > 0:09:43a long and tense wait to see a return on investment.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Along the way there would be
0:09:47 > 0:09:49potential loss of ships through storms.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51There could be piracy,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54there could be conquest by local rulers, etc, etc...
0:09:54 > 0:09:57So this was a very high-risk venture.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01But one that paid dividends from the beginning.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04When company ships first returned from the East Indies in 1607,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07investors had hit the jackpot.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13Ah. That single voyage netted an absolutely vast amount of money
0:10:13 > 0:10:15because of these... cloves!
0:10:15 > 0:10:20A single cargo of this ensured that the investors made a 230% profit,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22bringing them £36,000 -
0:10:22 > 0:10:24that's tens of millions in today's money.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29It's hard to comprehend just how much of a revolution this was.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31Something that we now take for granted.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33Used in medicine as a painkiller,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35cloves were so highly prized
0:10:35 > 0:10:38they were literally worth their weight in gold.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46With the construction of a warehouse
0:10:46 > 0:10:49and several homes, the company was turning three miles of beach
0:10:49 > 0:10:51into commercial real estate.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Trade was valuable, so they protected their new settlement
0:10:54 > 0:10:56with a stockade and called it
0:10:56 > 0:10:58Fort St George.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04The original Fort St George was built on this spot.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Now it's been massively strengthened and enlarged over the years,
0:11:07 > 0:11:10but it took 14 years to build,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13and the East India Company directors bitterly complained of the cost.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17But this was like a big security barrier for their warehouse.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Madras was the springboard for expansion.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26Within 50 years, the company was building two further settlements -
0:11:26 > 0:11:28which they called Bombay and Calcutta.
0:11:32 > 0:11:33These three urban centres
0:11:33 > 0:11:36certainly owe their existence
0:11:36 > 0:11:38to the East India Company.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41They didn't exist before.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46They grew out of small trading posts which were gradually fortified,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48became more residential,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Indian communities moved in servicing the needs
0:11:52 > 0:11:54of the company and British trade.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57And, yeah, absolutely crucial.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02In the early years, these three forts had very small garrisons.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06About 550 men were serving here at Fort George
0:12:06 > 0:12:08in what was then Madras.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Less than half of them were European troops,
0:12:10 > 0:12:12the rest of them were locally recruited Indians.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15The merchants were here to trade, not fight.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20The trouble was, this was a dangerous place to do business.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Competition from other European traders was fierce.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Skirmishes were common.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Thick walls were a necessary precaution.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32When you come up here to this battlement
0:12:32 > 0:12:34you get such a sense of the defensive power of this fort.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Look at these walls - they're comfortably 30m thick.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Sloping here, so that any cannonballs incoming
0:12:39 > 0:12:42will bounce harmlessly over the heads of the defenders.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45And each of these embrasures here - these V-shaped embrasures -
0:12:45 > 0:12:47would've had a big heavy cannon,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50and these cannonballs would have flown out through here,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52an interlocking field of fire,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55making sure that anyone approaching these fort walls
0:12:55 > 0:12:56would have been obliterated.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59It's an incredibly tough position to take.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03With the consent of the local Indian ruler,
0:13:03 > 0:13:05the settlement grew rapidly.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12By 1700, Madraspatnam had become a bustling town
0:13:12 > 0:13:14with 80,000 inhabitants.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Trade was booming.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20Goods were now flooding back from here to Britain,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23and were having a profound effect on the British lifestyle.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Can I have a single tea, please?
0:13:29 > 0:13:31It was the beginning of new kinds of diets -
0:13:31 > 0:13:34of choice, of consumerism.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37People could now choose to have sugar from the West Indies,
0:13:37 > 0:13:38pepper from India.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43It was also the start of the Brits' obsession with hot drinks -
0:13:43 > 0:13:46tea and coffee arrived for the first time.
0:13:50 > 0:13:51Thanks very much.
0:13:57 > 0:13:58Delicious.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Gingham, silk, muslin, calico...
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Back in Britain, the company was importing a cavalcade
0:14:09 > 0:14:11of rich new fabrics.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13Bowled over by the exquisite skill of India's craftsmen,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15the British public went crazy.
0:14:17 > 0:14:1918th century Indian textiles
0:14:19 > 0:14:22held at London's Victoria and Albert Museum
0:14:22 > 0:14:24reveal that an impressive range of techniques
0:14:24 > 0:14:26were used in their manufacture.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32All these objects are made of chintz, which is basically
0:14:32 > 0:14:35cotton which has been hand-painted
0:14:35 > 0:14:38rather than printed.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43The Indians managed to find ways of dyeing cotton
0:14:43 > 0:14:47so the colours remained brilliant and were colour-fast,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50so that was very exciting for people in the West.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Cheap, washable and hard-wearing -
0:14:54 > 0:14:56they made a huge impact.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00Less formal clothing became acceptable and fashionable.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04And it certainly worried the British textile industry,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08because they were very fearful that there would be no demand
0:15:08 > 0:15:11for their own wool and linen products.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14And, at one point, it caused such a sensation,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18and so much fear amongst the silk workers,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21that they tore the clothes off people's backs.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24- Really?- Because they thought their livelihoods were threatened.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26It was that dramatic.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28Company merchants were quick to respond
0:15:28 > 0:15:30to the consumers' changing tastes.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35The East India Company would report back regularly
0:15:35 > 0:15:37after every shipment to Britain from India,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40saying, "Well, we liked this, but these didn't sell so well."
0:15:40 > 0:15:43And, "Could you do more of the floral sprigs?"
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Or, "Could you do of more of this colour?"
0:15:47 > 0:15:49"The long cloth you sent us proved so very coarse,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51"ill-washed and packed,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53"that it is unfit to be sent home.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56"Our money is much better than such trash!"
0:15:56 > 0:15:59The British retail fashion industry was born.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05Pyjamas, bandanas, dungarees -
0:16:05 > 0:16:08dozens of new words entered the English dictionary.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Demand for Indian textiles was so great
0:16:11 > 0:16:13it threatened to destroy Britain's industry.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17"Everything that used to be made of wool or silk,
0:16:17 > 0:16:20"relating to either the dress of women,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23"or the furniture of our houses,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26"was supplied by the India trade."
0:16:27 > 0:16:30The Government even passed a law to ban people
0:16:30 > 0:16:32from wearing Indian textiles.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36But it didn't work - testimony to the rising power of the consumer.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44Over the next 100 years, sales of Indian textiles
0:16:44 > 0:16:46would generate 60% of the company's income.
0:16:48 > 0:16:54By 1700, it was operating 22 trading posts across India.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Calcutta was one of the biggest.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59The company's star was rising fast.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06But investors were about to be handed a commercial opportunity
0:17:06 > 0:17:08beyond their wildest expectations.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23For 200 years, India had been part of a vast empire
0:17:23 > 0:17:25ruled by a powerful dynasty.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30The Mughals had imposed a centralised government,
0:17:30 > 0:17:32built imposing monuments,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35and unified the country with a road system and single currency.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42The population was huge compared with Britain's -
0:17:42 > 0:17:44it was about 140 million,
0:17:44 > 0:17:46and Britain then had about four million.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49Erm, the economic position
0:17:49 > 0:17:52was it was the second largest economy in the world,
0:17:52 > 0:17:54reputedly, erm...
0:17:54 > 0:17:58with about 25% of the world's GDP.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02For the first few decades,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06the mighty Mughals barely even noticed the East India Company.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08The British didn't cause trouble,
0:18:08 > 0:18:10and besides, they paid good money.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14The Mughal Empire had a tax on imports of bullion,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17so they were doing quite well out of the company,
0:18:17 > 0:18:19bringing in all this silver and gold.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22They were also selling the company trading concessions,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26and wherever they were able to set up factories,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28they had to pay for it.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32So it was quite a good sort of source of income for the Empire.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40But, in 1707, the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45When the last great Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, died,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48his successors were unable to hold his empire together,
0:18:48 > 0:18:53and power devolved into a patchwork of competing regional states.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55Obsessed with its own problems, therefore,
0:18:55 > 0:18:57the empire didn't have time to worry about
0:18:57 > 0:18:59the little old East India Company.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06Amid the confusion, a deal was signed.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08In exchange for an annual fee,
0:19:08 > 0:19:10the East India Company was granted
0:19:10 > 0:19:14the right to trade - duty-free - across the state of Bengal.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17No gift could have been greater.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Company merchants previously restricted to the coast
0:19:20 > 0:19:24could now do business across an entire province.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26And as the Mughal Empire weakened further,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28the company expanded.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33The East India Company was sucked into this vacuum.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37It would back one local claimant to a throne against another.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39And in return for its support,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42it would be given little land holdings or trading concessions.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46That meant, within decades, the East India Company was becoming
0:19:46 > 0:19:49a sovereign entity in its own right.
0:19:49 > 0:19:50It had the power to raise revenue,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52to make war and peace,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55to mint its own coins, to administer justice.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58The East India Company was becoming a state.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02A state that, by 1800,
0:20:02 > 0:20:09would rule 140 million people across 94,000 square miles
0:20:09 > 0:20:12and command an army a quarter of a million strong -
0:20:12 > 0:20:16all controlled by 159 civil servants in a London office
0:20:16 > 0:20:19some 14,000 miles away.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21Their headquarters, East India House,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24has long since disappeared under this towering structure -
0:20:24 > 0:20:25the Lloyd's building.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28It was from here that the company was run.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30As its ships scoured the world's oceans,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34they were controlled by directors elected by shareholders,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37who were known collectively as the Court of Directors.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41There would be weekly board meetings of their directors.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44There'd be quarterly auctions of the company's products,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46and then annual general meetings
0:20:46 > 0:20:48which would often be ferocious affairs
0:20:48 > 0:20:51where shareholders would be fighting over the size of the dividend.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54TRADING FLOOR HUBBUB
0:20:56 > 0:20:58Share dealing, corporate governance,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01annual accounts - the company would help develop
0:21:01 > 0:21:03all the paraphernalia of modern business,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07turning London into the world's commercial capital.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18In India, the company's affairs were generating a mountain of paperwork,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22every transaction recorded for scrutiny back in London.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25So it needed a large body of able, young men
0:21:25 > 0:21:27to keep everything in order.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32This awe-inspiring building was the nerve centre
0:21:32 > 0:21:35of the East India Company's affairs in Bengal.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38In here were based a group of men known as the writers.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42They were bean counters and clerks noting down minutes of meetings
0:21:42 > 0:21:43and financial transactions -
0:21:43 > 0:21:47all the tedious day-to-day business of the East India Company.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53For the well-connected young Briton of the 1700s,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56a job with the company was a free ticket on the gravy train.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00To get a job as a writer, all you had to do was ingratiate yourself
0:22:00 > 0:22:02with one of the company directors.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05They were free to give the jobs to whoever they chose,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08and that meant that family connection counted for everything.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12They gave them to their sons, their cousins, their nephews
0:22:12 > 0:22:14and their associates' sons.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19Things like merit or experience counted for nothing.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22"I shall be placed on the staff,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25"wear a cocked hat and laugh at the Governor General's jokes,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29"and a capital appointment will follow in due course."
0:22:30 > 0:22:32The pay wasn't great,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35but you could do a bit of wheeler-dealing on the side.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Private trading was a good way for young men to
0:22:38 > 0:22:40supplement their income.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43The company did allow it, but there were rules.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46A captain was allowed to have a portion of his cargo
0:22:46 > 0:22:48to be reserved for his own private business.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50And the young writers out here
0:22:50 > 0:22:53were allowed to trade in certain commodities -
0:22:53 > 0:22:58spices, diamonds, and textiles woven with gold and silver thread.
0:22:58 > 0:22:59It was a nice little earner.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03They lend money to Indian nobles at extortionate interest rates,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05they speculate, they profiteer
0:23:05 > 0:23:07and they engage in trade
0:23:07 > 0:23:09and they use the East India Company monopolies
0:23:09 > 0:23:11and its political power to create
0:23:11 > 0:23:15very favourable trading conditions for themselves.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27But a career in India came with considerable risk.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30None of the company's men were prepared for the dangers
0:23:30 > 0:23:32of a tropical climate.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35They were greeted on arrival by
0:23:35 > 0:23:39a withering barrage of heat and disease.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41It was said that during the hot season here in India,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44it was as dangerous a place as anywhere in the world
0:23:44 > 0:23:45for humans to live.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51"Here I passed a night in a bed
0:23:51 > 0:23:53"which might be called a chop house for mosquitoes."
0:23:53 > 0:23:55"The intemperance of the climate,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58"together with the excessive heat of the sun
0:23:58 > 0:23:59"are very noxious to our health."
0:23:59 > 0:24:03"I had so bad a night of it, I really expected it to be my last.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07"My stomach is so weak it refuses everything."
0:24:08 > 0:24:10Many who came to Calcutta
0:24:10 > 0:24:13ended up here, in South Park Street Cemetery.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20There are so many stories of friendships, love affairs,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22families torn apart by death and disease.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24To just pick one out here...
0:24:24 > 0:24:28John Blackistone, a junior officer in the company's army,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and he had a friend who he looked up to, a few years his senior,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33called Lieutenant Rowley, who was in the Engineers.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Rowely got dysentery and slowly wasted away.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Blackistone wrote, "Poor fellow!
0:24:39 > 0:24:42"He expired in my arms.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46"To one so young as myself and unaccustomed to such scenes,
0:24:46 > 0:24:50"this could not but be a most painful circumstance."
0:24:56 > 0:24:59People grew to accept that death could be sudden.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03"We've known instances of dining with a gentlemen at midday
0:25:03 > 0:25:07"and being invited to his burial before suppertime."
0:25:08 > 0:25:11Calcutta historian Sudip Bhattacharya
0:25:11 > 0:25:15is researching mortality amongst the early settlers.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18The cemetery was opened in 1767
0:25:18 > 0:25:22and burials took place until 1790.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24So it's quite a short period?
0:25:24 > 0:25:25Yes, it's a very short period,
0:25:25 > 0:25:29- which only goes to demonstrate the mortality, the high mortality.- Wow.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36There's one here that you might be interested in.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40He was sincerely and universally regretted by Europeans and natives.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Superintendent of the police in Calcutta.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46So it affected everybody. Just because you were high and mighty,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49- it didn't mean you weren't going to get sick?- No, no. For instance,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52here you have a judge, he was one of the first judges
0:25:52 > 0:25:55of the Supreme Court of Adjudication in Bengal.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58They lacked the science, they lacked the knowledge
0:25:58 > 0:26:00about how to combat these microbes?
0:26:00 > 0:26:03- Yes.- So everyone was in the same boat.- Yes.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15The worst period for sickness was of course the monsoon,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17between June and September.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21If you managed to survive September, around 15th October,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25they would celebrate the fact that they had survived.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28A number of deaths took place in September.
0:26:28 > 0:26:29Many people died.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33In one year alone, more than a third
0:26:33 > 0:26:36of Calcutta's European population died during the rainy season.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40The average life span of a Briton in Bengal
0:26:40 > 0:26:42was said to be two monsoons.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45The company regularly shipped blank tombstones from England
0:26:45 > 0:26:47to meet demand.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55This is the dark twin of the East India Company's success.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58This is the one they probably wouldn't have wanted to talk about
0:26:58 > 0:27:00when they were recruiting those young men, full of hope,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04to come out here and grow rich and powerful.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09The company tried to help.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13It supplied ships and factories with vast quantities of wine
0:27:13 > 0:27:17in the mistaken belief that alcohol would promote health.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21It didn't help much - but the men couldn't have been more pleased.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23And when the cellars ran dry,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26there was always the local brew.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29Toddy made from the sap of palm trees
0:27:29 > 0:27:31was meant to cure griping of the stomach.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Then there was arrack, the locally brewed firewater.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37It was supposed to promote health in young men.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44When it became clear that Peruvian bark - or quinine - cured fevers,
0:27:44 > 0:27:46people started taking that.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Trouble is, it was very bitter. They found they had to mix it with
0:27:49 > 0:27:53sugar, soda water, gin and lemons -
0:27:53 > 0:27:57the quintessentially British gin and tonic had been produced.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00When men weren't busy dying,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03shuffling paperwork or raking in the cash,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05they were getting smashed.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08Hard drinking was a central part of their louche lifestyle.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14"Spent a severe night of punch,
0:28:14 > 0:28:16"and having sung ourselves to sleep in our chairs,
0:28:16 > 0:28:18"were awoke next morning at five by the gun,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20"when we turned into our several nests
0:28:20 > 0:28:24"to growl and keep our burning heads as cool as the weather would permit."
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Rampant alcoholism put paid to many a promising career.
0:28:30 > 0:28:31"More English fell in Hindustan
0:28:31 > 0:28:35"by the intemperate and injudicious use of ardent spirits
0:28:35 > 0:28:37"than by the sword."
0:28:39 > 0:28:41Drinking, gambling and brawling -
0:28:41 > 0:28:45they were the quintessential Englishmen abroad.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47The staunchly Protestant company directors
0:28:47 > 0:28:50soon realised they had a problem.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54While they cared little about their employees' alcoholism,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57they did care about their choice of women.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00Some of them were apparently taking up with the locals
0:29:00 > 0:29:01or, possibly even worse,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04the Catholic daughters of Portuguese traders.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07This had to be dealt with, and the company came up with
0:29:07 > 0:29:09a brilliant suggestion, which was,
0:29:09 > 0:29:11pack a ship full of British women and send them out here!
0:29:11 > 0:29:13What could possibly go wrong?
0:29:15 > 0:29:16The answer was...
0:29:16 > 0:29:18just about everything.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22One lady traveller divided these women into two groups.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25"Old maids of the shrivelled and dry description,
0:29:25 > 0:29:28"and girls educated merely to cover the surface
0:29:28 > 0:29:32"of their mental deformity."
0:29:32 > 0:29:35When the women arrived, they behaved just as wildly as the men,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38forming relationships with locals and having a great time.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40The plan was abandoned immediately.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44The East India Company realised they should stick to shipping out tweed.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Company servants had no need of a matchmaker, in any case.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16They were busy forming attachments of their own.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19The allure of Bengali women was proving as potent
0:30:19 > 0:30:21as the local firewater.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26"The attachment of many European gentlemen
0:30:26 > 0:30:29"to their native mistresses is not to be described.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33"An infatuation beyond all comparison often prevails."
0:30:38 > 0:30:42Many company men adopted the local tradition of polygamy.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46"I have known various instances of two ladies
0:30:46 > 0:30:47"being conjointly domesticated,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50"and one of an elderly military character,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54"who solaced himself with no less than 16 of all sorts and sizes."
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Many of these relationships lasted a lifetime.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10Thousands of company servants provided generously
0:31:10 > 0:31:12for the future of their Indian mistresses and offspring
0:31:12 > 0:31:15in wills held at the British Library.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20So here we have Matthew Leslie, who calls himself
0:31:20 > 0:31:24by his Muslim name - Meer Mohamed Hussein Khan -
0:31:24 > 0:31:28and he talks about his wife and he talks about
0:31:28 > 0:31:33his three mistresses, all of whom receive quite large sums of money.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38His late wife Zehourun - for her sole and separate use of benefit,
0:31:38 > 0:31:4020,000 sicca rupees to be paid
0:31:40 > 0:31:42straight after his death,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45the same sum of money is invested in company bonds
0:31:45 > 0:31:48and quarterly payments made in every year.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51The same kind of thing goes on for his other girls.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54And the amounts seem to be going down here.
0:31:54 > 0:31:55So there was favouritism?
0:31:55 > 0:31:58There's a league table of favouritism here.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03So here is Heera Bili. She gets 12,000 rather than 20,000,
0:32:03 > 0:32:08and quarterly payments, so you can see his favouritism decreases.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11But not only has he got four mistress heirs,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14but he also, in his will, mentions
0:32:14 > 0:32:16that if there's any of the young girls living in my family -
0:32:16 > 0:32:18living in his house -
0:32:18 > 0:32:21who may be with child at the time of my decease,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24if they give birth within the requisite time after he died,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27he's going to acknowledge that they're his children
0:32:27 > 0:32:29and he leaves money to them.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32And his executors will have discretion
0:32:32 > 0:32:35to determine whether or not such child or children
0:32:35 > 0:32:38"were or were not begotten by me".
0:32:38 > 0:32:41So that's pretty brutal. If they look like him, they get the cash?
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Absolutely. And he leaves 53,000 in ready cash,
0:32:44 > 0:32:49in his will - £53,000 sterling that is, not rupees -
0:32:49 > 0:32:53and today, in economic power,
0:32:53 > 0:32:55that's worth about £62 million.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00The East India Company had serious misgivings about its employees
0:33:00 > 0:33:03cohabiting with local women.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07But then again, knowledge of local markets was good for business.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Liaisons with indigenous women teach men languages,
0:33:11 > 0:33:15so the company really has a vested interest in these relationships
0:33:15 > 0:33:17being close and tightknit.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22'By the middle of the 18th century,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26'90% of company employees in India had local partners.'
0:33:26 > 0:33:28Morning, Driver.
0:33:28 > 0:33:30'Many could now afford several mistresses
0:33:30 > 0:33:32'and a house full of servants.'
0:33:32 > 0:33:34Right, let's go!
0:33:38 > 0:33:40But something odd was going on.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42They'd arrived here as humble merchants,
0:33:42 > 0:33:44but their new-found wealth
0:33:44 > 0:33:47was having a bizarre effect.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50They adopted the ostentatious, flamboyant lifestyles
0:33:50 > 0:33:51of an Eastern prince -
0:33:51 > 0:33:54surrounding themselves with armies of servants,
0:33:54 > 0:33:56being carried from place to place in a palanquin.
0:33:56 > 0:34:01The pomposity and extravagance of these white Mughals knew no bounds.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05Much to the annoyance of their fellow countrymen.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08"Many of the British inhabitants affect great splendour
0:34:08 > 0:34:10"in their mode of living.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13"They assume an air of much consequence,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15"and often treat the rest of their countrymen
0:34:15 > 0:34:17"with supercilious arrogance."
0:34:17 > 0:34:20I think this is my favourite picture from the period.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22It shows a man who looks like a Mughal emperor.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25He's sitting on a cushion, smoking a hookah, attended by servants,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28master of all he surveys, in his luscious robes and turban.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30But that is no Mughal emperor.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33In fact, it's an accountant from Yorkshire.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35His name's John Wombwell.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37He's living the dream.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43While some lived like overblown maharajahs, others -
0:34:43 > 0:34:45like Major General Charles Stuart -
0:34:45 > 0:34:48engage with India on a more profound level.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53Charles Stuart came out here from his native Ireland aged 19,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55and immediately fell in love with the place.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59He had a house here on Wood Street which he turned into a museum,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02filling it up with Indian artefacts and carvings.
0:35:02 > 0:35:04He was happy to show anybody around
0:35:04 > 0:35:08and share his passion for all things Indian.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Stuart found the exoticism of Hindu myths irresistible.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18"Whenever I look around me in the vast region of Hindu mythology,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22"it appears the most complete and ample system of moral allegory
0:35:22 > 0:35:24"that the world has ever produced."
0:35:26 > 0:35:30Stuart's encounter with India changed his life.
0:35:30 > 0:35:31Within a year of his arrival,
0:35:31 > 0:35:35he had discarded Christianity and become a Hindu.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Hindoo Stuart, as he became known, learned the local languages,
0:35:41 > 0:35:43dressed like a local,
0:35:43 > 0:35:45would've been very comfortable in places like this.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48He took a local woman as a wife and had a brood of mixed-race children.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51He even hired a group of Brahmins, Hindu scholars,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55to prepare the family's food in traditional Hindu manner.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Stuart wasn't unusual in embracing his new home.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07Many Britons and Indians accepted each other in an atmosphere
0:36:07 > 0:36:09of mutual understanding.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14The British came to India before the 19th century
0:36:14 > 0:36:18very much as explorers, adventurers, people out to make their money,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21and they encountered a very old and very complex civilisation,
0:36:21 > 0:36:23and they were often impressed by it.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26And so they didn't feel that they were in any way superior to Indians.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29They were just simply one of a number of groups jostling in India
0:36:29 > 0:36:33to try and earn a living and to try and make their way.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38And in the final analysis, integration was good for business.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42In any case, the company's attention
0:36:42 > 0:36:44was focused on a far bigger problem -
0:36:44 > 0:36:48an escalating military confrontation with the French.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51The British and French had set up trading posts
0:36:51 > 0:36:53within a few miles of each other -
0:36:53 > 0:36:56the French at Pondicherry and Chandernagore,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59the British in Madras and Calcutta.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01In 1756,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04rivalry exploded into open warfare.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09Driven by antagonism over colonial interests,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12the Seven Years' War raged from Europe to North America
0:37:12 > 0:37:14and across the world's oceans.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17MILITARY BAND PLAYS
0:37:18 > 0:37:22But in India, the ultimate prize was control over trade.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30MEN SHOUT IN UNISON
0:37:30 > 0:37:33The merchants of the East India Company
0:37:33 > 0:37:35had traditionally tried to avoid war -
0:37:35 > 0:37:37its costs were certain, but its outcomes far less so.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39It was bad for business.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41But as the French grew more threatening in the subcontinent,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44the company realised it needed to get more serious
0:37:44 > 0:37:46about the military side of things,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49and the motley crews guarding its forts in India
0:37:49 > 0:37:50weren't up to scratch.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53What it needed was a serious standing army.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59The company decided to strengthen its garrison at Fort St George.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01In January 1748,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04150 British troops arrived in Madras,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07led by Major Stringer Lawrence,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11an irascible old soldier known affectionately as Old Cock.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16He's 50 years old, he's fought in the lowlands in Spain
0:38:16 > 0:38:19and also in the Jacobite Rebellion, and he is a man with
0:38:19 > 0:38:21great knowledge of military affairs,
0:38:21 > 0:38:24and his job is really to re-form the company troops
0:38:24 > 0:38:26out in India.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32He begins by forming them into companies,
0:38:32 > 0:38:33each commanded by an officer,
0:38:33 > 0:38:36and those companies are equipped, trained and disciplined
0:38:36 > 0:38:38exactly like British troops would be,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40and of course the end result of all of this
0:38:40 > 0:38:43is that it becomes a much more effective fighting force.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46MILITARY BAND PLAYS
0:38:46 > 0:38:48His new army was led by European officers,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51but most of the troops were Indians,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54known as sepoys, from the Persian word for "soldier".
0:38:54 > 0:38:57Stringer Lawrence is seen as
0:38:57 > 0:39:00the grandfather of the modern Indian army.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Many units are the direct descendants of those
0:39:03 > 0:39:05he founded 250 years ago.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13One young soldier in Lawrence's new army was the future national hero,
0:39:13 > 0:39:15Clive of India.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Robert Clive was from a family of provincial gentry.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21As a young boy, he was a bit of a tearaway
0:39:21 > 0:39:23and loved getting into fights,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25he was expelled three times from school,
0:39:25 > 0:39:28so his father thought nothing much would come of him
0:39:28 > 0:39:31and he might as well gamble and send him out here to India
0:39:31 > 0:39:34to join the East India Company, which made men or broke them.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40At first, Clive had been desperately homesick and hated the searing heat.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43"If I should be so blest
0:39:43 > 0:39:47"as to revisit again my own country, but more especially Manchester -
0:39:47 > 0:39:48"the centre of all my wishes -
0:39:48 > 0:39:51"all that I could hope or desire for
0:39:51 > 0:39:54"would be presented before me in one view."
0:39:54 > 0:39:55He was known as a man
0:39:55 > 0:39:57who had a relatively short temper.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00He was, as we discover in his later career,
0:40:00 > 0:40:02a man with tremendous energy,
0:40:02 > 0:40:03vigour and resolution,
0:40:03 > 0:40:06and this must have seemed a pretty crushing way
0:40:06 > 0:40:08to begin his career.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12Clive would be the driving force in transforming the company
0:40:12 > 0:40:14from commercial giant
0:40:14 > 0:40:17to THE dominant political power in India.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24In 1756, his great adversary was the Mughal ruler of Bengal.
0:40:27 > 0:40:29Siraj ud-Daulah loathed the British
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and bitterly resented the company's hold on Calcutta.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36In June, he attacked the city.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Calcutta fell within hours.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42And on the evening of June 20th,
0:40:42 > 0:40:46146 British prisoners were taken to Fort William -
0:40:46 > 0:40:50now the site of the government post office.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54100 yards from this spot
0:40:54 > 0:40:56stands a grim reminder of what happened next.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00The most vivid account we have was left by a man called
0:41:00 > 0:41:02John Zephaniah Holwell.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06He'd been the chief magistrate of Calcutta. He'd been left in charge.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08And he and his men were marched into a cell
0:41:08 > 0:41:11just 18 foot wide at gun point.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14It became known simply as the Black Hole,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17and what happened in there became one of the most infamous stories
0:41:17 > 0:41:21in the whole of British Imperial history.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29It's said the prisoners, crushed together,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32suffocating and fighting to stay upright,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34were gripped by claustrophobic terror.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39The heat was almost unbearable.
0:41:41 > 0:41:42To try and slake his thirst,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45Holwell took off his sweat-soaked shirt
0:41:45 > 0:41:47and wrang it out into his mouth.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Other people trampled on the weakened bodies of their comrades,
0:41:51 > 0:41:56desperately trying to reach the two small windows at the top of the wall
0:41:56 > 0:41:58and gulp down some fresh air.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02It was a night of unspeakable suffering and cruelty.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08When the doors were flung open at dawn the next day,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10the cell was filled with corpses.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14To Holwell's horror, just 23 had survived.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17Towards the end of the account,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20there's a particularly memorable line.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23He writes, "But oh! Sir, what words shall I adopt to tell you
0:42:23 > 0:42:25"the whole that my soul suffered
0:42:25 > 0:42:29"at reviewing the dreadful destruction round me?
0:42:29 > 0:42:33"I will not attempt it. And indeed, tears stop my pen."
0:42:35 > 0:42:38The news of what had happened to their fellow countrymen
0:42:38 > 0:42:41at the hands of a barbarous Indian despot
0:42:41 > 0:42:44electrified congregations right across Britain.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47This, after all, was a generation that was starting to believe that
0:42:47 > 0:42:50"Britons never, never, never shall be slaves".
0:42:53 > 0:42:55The story of the Black Hole
0:42:55 > 0:42:58left a deep scar in the British psyche for generations.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02To Victorian schoolchildren, the events of 1756
0:43:02 > 0:43:05were as familiar as the Battle of Hastings.
0:43:05 > 0:43:10But historians like Sushil Chaudury believe Holwell's account
0:43:10 > 0:43:12can't be trusted.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15Holwell first mentioned that in the Black Hole,
0:43:15 > 0:43:19165 or 175 people were confined.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21Later, he revised the number.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25He said it's 146, and out of 146,
0:43:25 > 0:43:2923 were alive, but 123 died.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33You don't think so many people could be packed into that small a space?
0:43:33 > 0:43:39Surely not. It was impossible to put in 146 people in that small room,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41which is 18ft by 14ft,
0:43:41 > 0:43:45and then he said he knew most of the people,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47but it was pitch dark.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50It was impossible for anyone to recognise people there.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52And then he said he looked at his watch.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54How could he look at his watch? You know?
0:43:54 > 0:43:57It's fabrication, no doubt.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07What we don't know for sure
0:44:07 > 0:44:09is how many actually perished that night.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12The numbers range from three
0:44:12 > 0:44:15to over 100. I suspect it's somewhere in between.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18What is not in question is that this was an atrocity. Was it deliberate?
0:44:18 > 0:44:19Almost certainly not.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23It was unfortunate that this small, airless room was...
0:44:23 > 0:44:26It happened on an incredibly hot and humid night,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28some of the people inside were already wounded
0:44:28 > 0:44:30from the battle that had taken place.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33There were bound to be some fatalities,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37but that there were so many was a point taken very seriously
0:44:37 > 0:44:41by the remaining British in India and also the British back home,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44and there was very much a sense that they wanted revenge.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55Determined to re-assert supremacy,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58Clive recaptured Calcutta,
0:44:58 > 0:45:00and confronted Siraj at a village called Plassey,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02120 miles north of the city,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05in what would become a decisive moment in the history
0:45:05 > 0:45:07of the East India Company.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16At Plassey, Clive was terribly outnumbered
0:45:16 > 0:45:18by more than 10 to 1.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21But Clive had a plan that didn't just rely on military might alone.
0:45:21 > 0:45:23He'd been in secret correspondence
0:45:23 > 0:45:26with one of the nawab's key lieutenants -
0:45:26 > 0:45:29the commander of his cavalry, a man called Mir Jafar.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33The deal is done between Clive and Mir Jafar
0:45:33 > 0:45:35that at a certain key part of the fight,
0:45:35 > 0:45:37Mir Jafar will come onto his side.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39In other words, he'll leave his chief,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41and in return for putting him on the throne,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44the company will not only be paid vast sums of money -
0:45:44 > 0:45:46and we are talking about fantastical sums -
0:45:46 > 0:45:49but also, it will be given a free rein in terms of its trade.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58It was all over in a matter of hours,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01but it had little to do with military might.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Mir Jafar, the traitor, had been paid off
0:46:03 > 0:46:06and he ensured that the majority of the nawab's troops
0:46:06 > 0:46:08took no part in the battle.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10He was then installed as Britain's puppet.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14This opened up the richest province of India to the company.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18Robert Clive regarded this Machiavellian manoeuvring
0:46:18 > 0:46:20as the pinnacle of his career.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26Clive and the company were now rich.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30Better still, in exchange for a single payment of £270,000,
0:46:30 > 0:46:34the company was granted the right to manage
0:46:34 > 0:46:38the Diwani - or the revenue and civil administration - of Bengal.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42This allowed them to collect the land tax
0:46:42 > 0:46:46from the entire population of Bengal - 10 million people.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49It effectively turned them into the de facto government.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52Robert Clive estimated that it would be worth
0:46:52 > 0:46:56£1.7 million every year.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00With control over the revenues of India's richest province,
0:47:00 > 0:47:04the company's role had profoundly changed.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07It's the point at which the East India Company really moves
0:47:07 > 0:47:11from being a trading enterprise to an actual ruler of territory.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16The Diwani was a licence to print money.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19After the costs of administering Bengal had been met,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22the company's profit margin was 49%.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25The commercial floodgates had opened.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33In 1766, news of the Diwani reached London.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37The prospect of massive financial gains in Bengal
0:47:37 > 0:47:40pushed the company's share price through the roof.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42Now, this is partly fuelled by Clive,
0:47:42 > 0:47:44who wrote to his friends from India,
0:47:44 > 0:47:46advising them to buy stock
0:47:46 > 0:47:48and he wrote to his own attorneys, as well,
0:47:48 > 0:47:51telling them to make huge purchases on his behalf.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55Not surprisingly, other British and foreign investors followed suit.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Robert Clive returned home a national hero
0:48:05 > 0:48:10with a personal fortune equivalent to £38 million today,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14and a generous income from landholdings in Bengal.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17He went on a spending spree.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20He bought a raft of properties, including his childhood home,
0:48:20 > 0:48:22Styche Hall, which he renovated for his father,
0:48:22 > 0:48:24and then he bought this place,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28Walcot Hall, for the princely sum of £90,000.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35Not bad for 6,000 acres.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Clive began transforming his new home into a lavish palazzo
0:48:39 > 0:48:42with one of the finest gardens in England.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46After ruling a state four times bigger than Britain,
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Clive was determined to forge a political career
0:48:49 > 0:48:51back in the old country.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55His new Shropshire pile came with an added bonus.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01Walcot Hall had traditionally been owned by the powerful Walcot family
0:49:01 > 0:49:04and they'd been able to nominate the area's MPs.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07When they fell badly into debt, Clive saw his chance.
0:49:07 > 0:49:08He bought the estate
0:49:08 > 0:49:11and with it came control of the local parliamentary borough.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16That allowed him to basically appoint his cousin as the MP.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18For the next 50 years, Clive's money ensured
0:49:18 > 0:49:20that his family continue to live in style
0:49:20 > 0:49:24and they continued to control the politics of the local area.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29Clive added half a dozen seats in Shropshire
0:49:29 > 0:49:32and further estates in Devon, Monmouth and Surrey
0:49:32 > 0:49:34to a bulging property empire.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38He was just one of a number of company men
0:49:38 > 0:49:41who'd grown fabulously wealthy in Bengal
0:49:41 > 0:49:44and then had returned home to improve their status in life.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46They'd bought their way into the aristocracy,
0:49:46 > 0:49:49they'd bought influence and power.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52They became known as nabobs,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56a term synonymous with vanity and absurd pretention.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00They're perceived to be too rich for their own good,
0:50:00 > 0:50:04to wear their diamonds too ostentatiously,
0:50:04 > 0:50:06to wear textiles from India,
0:50:06 > 0:50:09concerns about so-called Oriental despotism,
0:50:09 > 0:50:13that they may have brought back from the Mughal Empire in India with them.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16All of those are great concerns for people.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19The nabobs represented the East India Company
0:50:19 > 0:50:22at its most venal and corrupt -
0:50:22 > 0:50:25a direct threat to the social and political order.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29There was a concern that not only were they bringing back great wealth
0:50:29 > 0:50:32but they were also infiltrating Parliament
0:50:32 > 0:50:33with sort of Oriental corruption
0:50:33 > 0:50:36and Asiatic practices of government,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39which were viewed with a great deal of concern and scepticism and anxiety
0:50:39 > 0:50:41by the ruling elite in Britain.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44By the 1780's, they had become
0:50:44 > 0:50:48a powerful minority, with one-tenth of the seats in Parliament.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55But their good fortune would soon end.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03A natural calamity was about to throw the honourable company
0:51:03 > 0:51:06into the biggest crisis in its history.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13Famine had long been a part of life in Bengal,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16but one that began in the late 1760s
0:51:16 > 0:51:20was turned into a full-blown humanitarian disaster
0:51:20 > 0:51:23by the East India Company.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26It's hard to come to terms with even after all these years,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29but while the nabobs were back in Britain buying stately homes,
0:51:29 > 0:51:33throwing parties, filling them with silver, wine and art,
0:51:33 > 0:51:36the people of Bengal, who were paying for all that,
0:51:36 > 0:51:40were experiencing some of the most appalling conditions imaginable.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48A prolonged drought and a poor harvest
0:51:48 > 0:51:52caused a famine that continued for three long years -
0:51:52 > 0:51:54the worst in living memory.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00The agony of the Bengali people is described in vivid detail.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08The East India Company watched and recorded everything.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12"7,600 dying in Calcutta in the last six weeks.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16"Double that number in other towns in the province."
0:52:16 > 0:52:20And then these chilling, terrible, awful words...
0:52:20 > 0:52:23"Hunger drives many of them to such distress,
0:52:23 > 0:52:27"that the strongest frequently, in some parts of the country,
0:52:27 > 0:52:31"fall upon the weaker and devour them."
0:52:31 > 0:52:33We're talking about cannibalism?
0:52:33 > 0:52:35We're talking about cannibalism here.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40They're forced into those kinds of horrible means of staying alive.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44And then, in contrast, the next paragraph says,
0:52:44 > 0:52:47"Balls, concerts and all public entertainments
0:52:47 > 0:52:51"ought to subside at this time of general scarcity,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54"but I'm sorry to say they have not.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57"And under the doors and windows of these places of amusement
0:52:57 > 0:53:00"lie many dead bodies, and others, again,
0:53:00 > 0:53:05"in all the agonies of death, despair and want."
0:53:05 > 0:53:07So as you're going out to a concert or something,
0:53:07 > 0:53:09you're stepping over the destitute, dead and dying?
0:53:09 > 0:53:11Piles of dead people.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13Did the East India Company help or make things worse?
0:53:13 > 0:53:15They make things worse.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18They raised the taxes on agricultural produce.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20They banned the hoarding of rice and grain,
0:53:20 > 0:53:23which was traditionally used to tide over the population
0:53:23 > 0:53:26through periods of scarcity.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28They ripped up some of the food crops
0:53:28 > 0:53:31to plant much more profitable indigo
0:53:31 > 0:53:33and even-more-profitable opium.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38And, finally, some of their junior servants
0:53:38 > 0:53:39started to speculate
0:53:39 > 0:53:45and profiteer from the sale of rice and grain,
0:53:45 > 0:53:50selling it out of the province at grossly inflated prices.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55The letters reveal where the company's priorities really lay.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01While they lament "the distresses which the inhabitants
0:54:01 > 0:54:03"may be reduced to thereby",
0:54:03 > 0:54:07they can't divest themselves of anxious apprehensions
0:54:07 > 0:54:11"concerning the effects which a continuation of the drought
0:54:11 > 0:54:15"may have on the collections of our revenues".
0:54:15 > 0:54:22So they're thinking profits rather than disaster relief.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29It's estimated that between two million and ten million people died.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33A salutary lesson on the dangers of unchecked corporate power.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37You have streams and streams of people who are dying
0:54:37 > 0:54:40walking to company officials saying, "Help us.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43"You are now the rulers, you need to do something,
0:54:43 > 0:54:45"you have responsibility for us,"
0:54:45 > 0:54:47and the British do very little.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50Nobody was ultimately brought to account for it,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53but there was certainly a sense that
0:54:53 > 0:54:56the nature of East India Company government at the time
0:54:56 > 0:54:59had exacerbated the famine.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03That it had made things worse, if it hadn't actually caused it.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10The famine was a human tragedy
0:55:10 > 0:55:12and a financial disaster.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14The Bengal economy collapsed,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17the company's income plummeted,
0:55:17 > 0:55:21its share price crashed and all dividend payments were suspended.
0:55:22 > 0:55:23The bubble was burst.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27People wanted to know why - how could this have happened?
0:55:27 > 0:55:28Parliament set up its own enquiry
0:55:28 > 0:55:31and a scapegoat was lined up -
0:55:31 > 0:55:34Robert Clive, Britain's richest man.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39He became seen as the leader of the nabobs
0:55:39 > 0:55:42and was nicknamed Lord Vulture.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47Denounced for enriching himself with Indian loot,
0:55:47 > 0:55:49Clive was hauled before Parliament.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54He asked his accusers to remember the situation that he'd been in -
0:55:54 > 0:55:56an opulent city had lain at his mercy.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58He'd been shown through vaults full of treasure,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01gold and precious stones on every side.
0:56:01 > 0:56:02He finished by saying,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06"By God, Mr Chairman, I stand astonished at my own moderation."
0:56:06 > 0:56:09Well, if Clive was greedy or corrupt,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12he certainly wasn't the only one in the House of Commons.
0:56:12 > 0:56:14He was acquitted.
0:56:14 > 0:56:18In fact, he was even thanked for services to his country.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22But like a plot twist in a Victorian melodrama,
0:56:22 > 0:56:24his life ended in tragedy.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29In November 1774, Clive was found dead at his London home.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33He'd suffered depression for much of his life,
0:56:33 > 0:56:35and he'd become an opium addict.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37It's very likely that he committed suicide.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40Dr Samuel Johnson wrote that his crimes had driven him
0:56:40 > 0:56:42to slit his own throat.
0:56:42 > 0:56:47It was a scandalous and pitiful end to a life of extraordinary,
0:56:47 > 0:56:50if controversial, achievement.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53Accused of corruption, incompetence and greed,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56the company's reputation was in tatters,
0:56:56 > 0:56:58and there was worse to come.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01The crisis that was affecting the company
0:57:01 > 0:57:03really came to a head in 1772,
0:57:03 > 0:57:07where there was a failure of a major Scottish bank, the Ayr Bank,
0:57:07 > 0:57:11which created a credit crunch. About 30 other banks, in fact, failed
0:57:11 > 0:57:14and that led to a major shortage of money in the economy.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17The company had to go repeatedly to the Bank of England for loans
0:57:17 > 0:57:20to tide them over. They were very indebted.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23Now, starved of funds,
0:57:23 > 0:57:26the world's greatest company had run out of cash.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29There was only one possible way out -
0:57:29 > 0:57:31massive government bailout.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34For reasons that are spookily familiar, it was decided
0:57:34 > 0:57:37that the East India Company was too big to fail.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43The British Government rescued the company with public money
0:57:43 > 0:57:46today equivalent to £176 million.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51But its powers were progressively curtailed.
0:57:51 > 0:57:56The India Act of 1784 transferred its executive management
0:57:56 > 0:58:01to an independent board of control answerable to Parliament.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03All kickbacks were banned.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07The British State was now pulling the strings.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11Instead of chancers like Robert Clive,
0:58:11 > 0:58:13the British Government would now send out
0:58:13 > 0:58:16its own, more reliable people to run India.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19The Governor General here in Calcutta would rule supreme,
0:58:19 > 0:58:23given sweeping new powers in revenue, diplomacy and war.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28It was nothing less than the birth of empire.