• The British Parliament enacted a series of laws, among which the Regulating Act of 1773 stood first, to curb the Company’s traders’ unrestrained commercial activities and to bring about some order in territories under the Company’s control.

• Limiting the Company Charter to periods of twenty years, subject to review upon renewal, this Act gave the British government supervisory rights over the Bengal, Bombay and Madras Presidencies.

• The Regulating Act also created a unified administration for India, uniting the three Presidencies under the authority of the Bengal’s Governor, who was elevated to the new position of Governor-General.

• Warren Hastings was the first incumbent Governor-General (1773–1785).

• The Pitt’s India Act of 1784, sometimes described as the ‘half-loaf system’, as it sought to mediate between the Parliament and the Company’s directors, enhanced the Parliament’s control by establishing the Board of Control, whose members were selected from the British Cabinet.

• The Charter Act of 1813 ended the monopoly of the Company over trade with India.

• The Company’s control over revenue, administration and appointments remained untouched.

• The Charter Act of 1833 abolished the Company’s monopoly of the China trade.

• The Act also deprived the Presidencies of the power to make laws, concentrating legislative power with the Governor-General and his Council.