Description: Revenue and Reform offers a reappraisal of British imperial politics in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. It is traditional to regard the 1760s as a time when British politicians were preoccupied with the crises that eventually led to the outbreak of the American War of Independence. In this book, however, it is the Indian problem that is examined. Politicians struggled to come to terms with the East India Company's unexpected acquisition of territory and great wealth in Bengal, and they endeavored to formulate policy related to many new and unfamiliar issues. New light is shed on debate about revenue collection, territorial rights, diplomacy, justice, and administrative reform in order to illustrate the central theme of the book: the gradual and reluctant assumption of responsibility by ministers for the Indian empire.
Review Quotes: "This fine study of the Indian problem in Hanoverian politics represents something of a breakthrough....[Bowen] is able to synthesize many of the issues raised in the periodical pieces and move the debate forward. The result is very rewarding indeed and this whole approach to imperial problems is to be encouraged, for the very simple reason that it augments the traditional concerns of Empire scholarship so well." Philip Lawson, Albion