15. The East India Company controlled farm outputs to maximize trade value
Particularly in India, the EIC established quotas in agricultural output based on the values to be gained in trade, controlling prices by responding to demand, without concern for the impact on local populations. These attitudes exacerbated the effects of famine within the Indian subcontinent on several occasions during the 18th and 19th centuries. The effects of starvation and the EIC’s response to it led to several rebellions and wars in India, and the cost of controlling the population increased steadily. Armies raised from the native population often were themselves contentious. The EIC throughout its existence practiced the policy that a British officer of any rank was senior to a native officer of any rank.
Thus, a British subaltern outranked the most senior Indian officers, who were limited in the rank they could achieve, a glass ceiling, as it were, created by company policy. The resentment of the natives in the ranks was often fueled by British condescension towards them and created a simmering pool of discontent within the ranks of the company’s armies. The suppression of mutinous troops was another drain on company resources. The EIC did not, for the most part, suppress the religious practices of the Hindu and Muslim faiths, at least not as a matter of policy.