British Regulating Act

Audience

There are four clear audiences for the British Regulating Act, one that the British most likely overlooked The act is a legal document, so the first and most direct audience consisted of the members of the House of Commons and Lord North himself. Within this body, however, were members who were also part of the second audience: officials and shareholders and defenders of the East India Company. Many members of the House of Commons were influenced either directly by their personal stake in the company or by the powerful lobby that the company operated. The document addressed this audience in two ways.

First, the language of the document is stern when discussing the current conditions of the East India Company, and it reads at points much more like a prosecutorial document than a regulating act. This is an attempt by the authors to make the case for corruption to members of Parliament sympathetic to the company and to preempt any defense of the company’s actions those defenders might raise. Second, the East India Company itself exerted influence over the shape of the act by taking part in negotiations over the final document. The committee report on which the Regulating Act was based advocated stronger control and harsh punishment for prior company abuses, but the Regulating Act of 1773 reflects a compromise on the part of both sides. The faction of the House of Commons opposed to the East India Company had to lighten their punitive approach, and the faction that supported the company had to accept increased regulation of the company.

The third audience for the act was the general public, both within Britain and among the European colonial powers. The British public was upset by tales of various abuses by company officials, and the act was designed to address these grievances (or give the appearance of addressing them). The behavior of the East India Company was also an embarrassment to the British colonial project, and the act was certainly intended to be read by other colonial powers in the region, such as the French and the Dutch. These powers would learn that Britain was reining in the abuses of the East India Company while at the same time preserving the company’s monopoly in the region.

A fourth important audience of the document is never addressed in the text, nor did this audience have any input into the contents of the Act. This audience is the entire local population of India. The British Regulating Act is regularly seen as the opening of formal colonial power on the subcontinent, and it is notable that any discussion or consideration of the desires of the local population is completely absent from the act.