Pitt’s India Act of 1784
In a bid to rectify the defects of the Regulating Act of 1773, the British Parliament passed the Amending Act of 1781, also known as the Act of Settlement.
Features of the Act
- It distinguished between the commercial and political functions of the Company.
- It allowed the Court of Directors to manage commercial affairs but created a new body called the Board of Control to manage political affairs. Thus, it established a system of double government.
- It empowered the Board of Control to supervise and direct all operations of the civil and military government or revenues of the British possessions in India.
Thus, the act was significant for two reasons: first, the Company’s territories in India were for the first time called the ‘British possessions in India’; and second, the British Government was given supreme control over Company’s affairs and its administration in India.
