In 1744, the company obtained a renewal of their charter till 1780, but not without a loan of £1,000,000 to government; for the monopoly was distasteful to the nation at large. France, too, had an E. I. C., and the struggles between the two companies for power in the southern part of India, led to constant warfare between them during the remainder of the century. Other loans to government were the means of obtaining further renewals of the charter in later years. In 1833, the legislature took• away all the trading privileges of the company. The dividends to proprietors of East India stock were thenceforward to be paid out of taxes imposed by the company on the people of India, in such provinces as were under British dominion. From that year the coin pany's powers became anomalous; the company could not trade, and could not govern without the sanction and continued interference of the imperial government. The wars in India, since that year, have been waged by England as a nation, rather than by the company; and England practically, though hot nominally, became responsible for the enormous cost of those wars. In 1853, the charter was again renewed, with a further lessening of the power of the company, and an increase of that of the crown.
Had not the Indian revolt occurred in 1857, the last charter would have remained in force until 1873; but that gigantic calamity led to the resolution—a resolution the wis dom of which was disputed by many of the best judges of Indian affairs—of concen trating the power in the hands of the imperial government. In spite of a strenuous
relistance, in 1858, the company were forced to cede their powers, by an act which received the royal assent on the 2d of August. The charter of 1853 had provided that £6,000,000 of India stock should have 104- per cent dividend guaranteed by England out of the revenues of India; and that parliament should redeem this stock at cent per cent premium any time after the year 1873. The act of 1858, therefore, contained due clauses for carrying out these provisions, and transferred the whole of the company's powers to the crown.
The company continued to exist, but for little other purpose than that of receiving and distributing dividends. Most of the distinomished men, and political, till then in the company's service, accepted office under the crown, to assist the government by their general knowledge of Indian affairs. These affairs are now managed by a sec retary in council at the new India office. The valuable library and museum of the com pany have passed over to the crown; and an act of parliament J873) provides for the paying off 'of the India stock, and the final extinction of the once famous East India company.