From Trade to Territory The Company Establishes Power Test - 10

Higher than Diwani Adalat was the Provincial Court of Appeal. Four provincial Courts of appeal were set up at Dhaka, Calcutta, Murshidabad, and Patna. These courts heard appeals from the districts except the English.

Cornwallis increased the salary of the judges to check bribery and corruption. He abolished the court fees. A new code of regulations known as “Cornwallis code” was compiled in 1793 by Sir George Barlow.

Defects of Subsidiary Alliance:-

1. The native rulers lost their prestige and dignity,

2. The subsidy demanded from the Indian rulers was beyond their means and they could not afford it. So they taxed their people very heavily,

3. The Indian rulers were compelled to disband their own armies. The disbanded soldiers, in course of time, joined robber gangs such as Thugs and Pindaris and troubled the public,

4. The local rulers lived a life of irresponsibility and degradation because they considered

that their security was the British concern and

 5. Though the Indian rulers were not allowed to wage war with each other directly, they were slowly preparing themselves for wars and they were plotting against one another.

Cornwallis suspended the whole Board of Revenue for irregularities and enforced the new rules against private trade. He insisted on the company providing generous salaries in its place.

According to the terms of a subsidiary alliance, princely rulers were not allowed to have an independent armed force. They were to be protected by the East India Company, but had to pay for the 'subsidiary forces' that the company was supposed to maintain for the purpose of this protection.