White Paper on Indian States (1950)/Part 1/East India Company's Treaty-making Activities
East India Company's Treaty-Making Activities
2. The first phase of the East India Company's treaty-making activities, which may be said to have extended from 1757 after the victory of Plassey to the close of the first Lord Minto's Governor-Generalship in 1813, was, generally speaking, marked by a desire to confine British interests to trading in and around the territories in which the British possessed settlements. During this period, the Company was struggling for a foothold in India and it recoiled from the expense and danger of extending its commitments beyond the ringfence of its own territorial acquisitions.
3. To the policy of non-involvement, the treaty-making career of Wellesley formed an exception. Wellesley came to India "inspired with imperial projects". "From the first he laid down, as his guiding principle, that the British must be the one paramount power in India, and that native Princes could only retain the personal insignia of sovereignty by surrendering their political independence." The Subsidiary System introduced by Wellesley contained in it the essentials of the framework of States as it was developed and maintained under British Rule. From the British point of view, the system had distinct advantages. It ensured the fidelity of the State by the presence of the subsidiary force maintained by the Company at the cost of the State; it enabled "the British to throw forward their military considerably in advance of their political frontier". The system contributed to the breakdown of the internal independence of the States on which it was imposed and paved the ground for advance towards paramountcy.