When was the monopoly of China trade lost by East India Company?
- (a)1813
- (b)1833
- (c)1838
- (d)1860
Correct — B, 1833. The Company lost its Indian trade monopoly and its China monopoly at two different moments, twenty years apart, and the question is aimed straight at that gap. The Charter Act of 1813 ended the monopoly of trade with India but expressly kept two things back for the Company — the tea trade and the trade with China. The Charter Act of 1833 finished the job: it wound up the Company's commercial business altogether, including the remaining monopoly over tea and over trade with China, and left the Company as a purely administrative body holding India in trust for the Crown. That is why 1833 is also the Act that renamed the Governor-General of Bengal as Governor-General of India and gave his Council exclusive legislative power.
- (a)1813 — The tempting near-miss. The Charter Act of 1813 threw open the India trade to British private merchants under licence, but it deliberately reserved the tea trade and the China trade to the Company for a further twenty years.
- (c)1838 — No charter fell due in 1838 — the Company's charter was renewed on a twenty-year cycle in 1793, 1813, 1833 and 1853, and 1838 is not on that list.
- (d)1860 — Two years too late for anything about the Company's trade, and two years after the Company itself. The Government of India Act 1858 abolished the Company and transferred its territories to the Crown.
The Company's charter came up for parliamentary renewal roughly every twenty years, and each renewal stripped away another commercial privilege while adding another layer of state control. 1773 (the Regulating Act) and 1784 (Pitt's India Act) brought supervision; 1813 opened the India trade and asserted Crown sovereignty over Company territories; 1833 abolished the Company's trade entirely and centralised legislative power in the Governor-General of India in Council; 1853 opened the covenanted civil service to competition and detached a Legislative Council. The 1858 Act ended the Company altogether.
The reliable way to hold this chain is to attach one memorable clause to each date rather than a list. 1813 goes with 'trade opened, except tea and China' and with the one lakh of rupees a year set aside for education. 1833 goes with 'no more trade at all' plus 'Governor-General of India' and the Law Member — the post T.B. Macaulay took. Once 1813 carries its own exception clause, the exam's favourite confusion between the two Acts stops working, because the exception is the thing 1833 removes. As of the 2021 exam and today alike, this is settled statutory history; the only live question about it is which detail a paper chooses to hang on which year.
- The Charter Act of 1813 ended the Company's monopoly of trade with India but reserved the tea trade and the trade with China to it.
- The Charter Act of 1833 ended the Company's commercial activities entirely, including the remaining monopoly of the tea and China trade.
- The 1833 Act redesignated the Governor-General of Bengal as the Governor-General of India, and vested all law-making power in the Governor-General in Council.
- It also added a fourth, Law Member to the Council — the post first held by T.B. Macaulay — though it did not require that member to be an Indian.
- The Government of India Act 1858 abolished the East India Company and transferred the government of India to the Crown.
- Answering 1813 because that is the famous 'end of the monopoly' Act, and forgetting its tea-and-China exception.
- Attributing the abolition of the Company itself to a Charter Act; that was the Government of India Act 1858.
- Assuming the 1833 Act required an Indian Law Member; it created the post, and Macaulay was the first to hold it.
Asked either as a bare date question like this one, or as a statements item testing exactly which trade the 1813 Act left in the Company's hands.
Consider the following statements about 'the Charter Act of 1813': 1. It ended the trade monopoly of the East India Company in India except for trade in tea and trade with China. 2. It asserted the sovereignty of the British Crown over the Indian territories held by the Company. 3. The revenues of India were now controlled by the British Parliament. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(a) 1 and 2 only
The precise counterpart. UPSC states in so many words that 1813 spared the tea trade and the China trade; that exception is what the CDS question is asking you to date, and the answer is the next charter renewal, 1833.
The real beginning of western education in India can be dated from
- (a) the Charter Act of 1813
- (b) the Charter Act of 1793
- (c) the Sarda Act of 1929
- (d) the Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education, 1835
Answer(a) the Charter Act of 1813
The same Act, tested on its other famous clause — the annual grant for education. Holding both clauses of 1813 together, the education grant and the tea-and-China exception, is what keeps 1813 and 1833 apart.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Charter Act of 1813 ended the East India Company's monopoly of trade with India, but retained its monopoly over trade in
- (a)Cotton and indigo
- (b)Tea, and trade with China
- (c)Opium and salt
- (d)Saltpetre and silk
Answer(b) Tea, and trade with China — these were the two privileges the 1813 Act preserved and the 1833 Act finally removed.
- practice — not a real PYQ
By which Act was the Governor-General of Bengal redesignated as the Governor-General of India?
- (a)The Regulating Act, 1773
- (b)Pitt's India Act, 1784
- (c)The Charter Act of 1833
- (d)The Government of India Act, 1858
Answer(c) The Charter Act of 1833 — the same Act that ended the Company's commercial activities and centralised law-making in the Governor-General in Council.