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The Opium (Heroin) foundations of the BANKING INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA
India was once a rich country, it was called ‘Sone Ki Chidiya’ (Bird of Gold) in the ancient world and it was this reputation that attracted both travelers and invaders.
That was before the East India Company was granted the Charter to trade with India. Below is an account of what followed after that.
1600 – The East India Company was granted the Charter to trade with India
1608 – During this time ships belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat, which was established as a trade transit point.
Surat from the sea One of a pair depicting views of Surat, India, suggesting the healthy maritime trade of a busy Dutch East Indies factory port at the height of its success in the mid 17th century. Dutch merchants had established themselves with monopoly powers in the East Indies and trading stations on the mainland of India and Ceylon. This resulted in considerable hostility between the Dutch and English companies. The artist’s attempt to capture the admixture of familiar ships in the exotic surroundings of a Dutch settlement in India is particularly evocative. The fortified town of Surat can be seen with ships at anchor on the right and centre, and with smaller craft under sail on the left. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
In the next two years, the Company built its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal.
1750 – The East India Company started cultivating Opium in Bengal and Bihar to finance its own private army of almost 2 lakh soldiers. The destruction of food crops in Bengal to make way for opium poppy cultivation for export reduced food availability and contributed to the famine resulting in deaths of 10 million people.
1757 – Opium traders after hatching a conspiracy with Siraj-ud-Daulah, Yar Lutuf Khan, Jagat Seths (Mahtab Chand and Swarup Chand), Omichund and Rai Durlabh took over India after The Battle of Plassey establishing company rule in South Asia.
1780 – It was Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India’s idea to first traffic drugs to China
Through 1790 – East India Company established a monopoly on Opium trade – and poppy growers in Indian could sell only to the East India Company. Thousands of Bengali , Bihari and Malva Indian farmers were forced to grow Opium.
At the same time, there was commercial stagnation and trade depression throughout Europe. The directors of the company attempted to avert bankruptcy by appealing to Parliament for financial help. This led to the passing of the Tea Act. The arrival of tax-exempt Company tea, undercutting the local merchants, triggered the Boston Tea Party in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of the major events leading up to the American Revolution.
By the 19th century – British Queen Victoria was the biggest drug trafficker. Even Queen Victoria used Opium ( Laudanum ), and records exist in the Royal Apothecary at Balmoral, as to how many times Opium was passed on to the royal palace. A lot of British noblemen were Opium eaters.
Now coming to the real question…
But first we need to understand who owned this East India Company.
Also, everyone knows how much gold and gems were looted from India by the East India Company…
…but let’s pause for a moment and ask another question; Whatever happened to all that gold ?
Well, to this day it lies in the basement of the Bank of England, which indirectly is the basis for the establishment of almost all of the banking institutions of India and also many around the world.
1708 – Moses Montefiore and Nathan Mayer Rothschild loaned the British Treasury £3,200,000 (used to service the debt owed the privately operated Bank of England operated by Nathan Mayer Rothschild), in return for an exclusive grant of trading privileges with all countries of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, between Cape Horn and Cape Good Hope for the newly chartered joint stock corporation which Rothschild controlled – the British East India Company. They always operate through joint stock corporations in order to conceal their ownership and avoid personal responsibility.
1844 – The Bank Charter Act was passed under the government of Robert Peel, which restricted the powers of British banks and gave exclusive note-issuing powers to the central Bank of England.
This meant that the Rothschilds were able to control more, because all the banks were now forced to use Bank of England notes, instead of their own.
George Warde Norman was a Director of the Bank of England from 1821 to 1872, a key figure behind the Bank Charter Act of 1844. His vision was of increased human happiness through a wholesale reform of the revenue system founded upon direct taxation in the form of a comprehensive property tax.
1851/1853 – Later The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was founded in London by Scotsman James Wilson following the grant of a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.
The bank’s business dealt specifically with large volume discounting and re-discounting of opium and cotton bills. Although opium cultivation gradually increased in China, opium imports still increased from 50,087 picul in 1863 to 82,61 picul in 1888.
Transactions in the opium trade generated substantial profits for Chartered bank.
The same year (1853) The Mercantile Bank of India, London and China was established in Bombay by the Parsis who were the middle men (drug runners) (will be addressed in the next post) for the East India Company.
Later, the Bank also became one of the principal foreign banknote issuing institutions in Shanghai; which we know today as the HSBC Bank.
The SBI’s origins lay in Calcutta – the then capital of British India – when it was born as the Bank of Calcutta on June 2, 1806, mainly to fund General Wellesley’s wars against Tipu Sultan and the Marathas. It was renamed Bank of Bengal on January 2, 1809. Similar joint stock banks, the Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras, came up in 1840 and 1843, respectively.
Gradually, the Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras came up in 1840 and 1843, respectively. In 1921, these banks with their 70 branches were merged to form the Imperial Bank of India. After Independence, several state-owned banks were merged with the Imperial Bank of India to form the State Bank of India in 1955. It is still known as State Bank of India.
1859 – James Wilson (founder of The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China)was sent to India to establish the tax structure, a new paper currency and remodel the finance system of India after the revolt of 1857.
He is known as the forefather of the Indian Tax structure.
RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) came into picture according to the guidelines laid down by Dr Ambedkar. RBI was conceptualized as per the guidelines, working style and outlook presented by Dr Ambedkar in front of the Hilton Young Commission. When this commission came to India under the name of “Royal Commission on Indian Currency & Finance”, each and every member of this commission were holding Dr Ambedkar’s book named “The Problem of the Rupee – It’s origin and it’s solution.”
Globalisation is not a universal and secular creed…
It’s just a hangover from the Colonial Era.
In its day, the company occupied and manipulated the interstices of a truly global economy. Tea from China was bought with opium from India; Indian and later British textiles (made from cotton grown in India) purchased slaves in west Africa, who were sold in the Americas for gold and silver, which was invested in England, where the sugar harvested by the slaves ensured a booming market for the tea from China. The big winners sat in the City of London. The more numerous losers could be found in every corner of the globe.
– Mike Marqusee
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