ABSTRACT
When the Great Mughal in Delhi, in 1765, granted revenue rights and judicial duties in its easternmost territories to a mercantile corporation, in a stroke the British East India Company (EIC) received political immunities in territories larger than the British Isles. This was a large and Janus-faced sovereignty. The EIC was simultaneously made a governor with obligations to the Mughal sovereign and his subjects, and, with a mercantile logic, it secured monopoly in fiscal sources in Indian territories. These lands held more than land revenues as they encompassed the gateways to the southwestern part of the Silk Road network, which was the reason why the EIC merchants were attracted here in the first place. While the Company carefully guarded its sovereign rights against merchant competition, as a Mughal governor it was also obliged to exercise justice to Mughal subjects according to Mughal law. However, it remained a headache even in the 1830s to establish the identity and command authority over these subjects.
