East India Company Act, 1767 (7 Geo. III, c. 57) 

        An Act for establishing an agreement for the payment of the annual sum of four hundred thousand pounds, for a limited time, by the East India Company, in respect of the territorial acquisitions and revenues lately obtained in the East Indies. 

        Whereas the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies have proposed that a temporary agreement should be made in  relation to the territorial acquisitions and revenues lately obtained  there; and have thereupon offered to pay, for the benefit of the public during the term of such agreement, the yearly sum of four hundred thousand pounds, by half-yearly payments. And whereas it may be for the benefit of the public, and the said Company, that a temporary agreement for the space of two years, should be made in regard to the said territorial acquisitions and revenues. Now we, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, do most humbly beseech your Majesty, that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, and their successors  shall advance and pay into the receipt of His Majesty's Exchequer, for His Majesty's use, the sum of four hundred thousand pounds per annum, for and during the term of two years, to be computed from the first day of February, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven, by half-yearly payments of two hundred thousand pounds each; which half-yearly payments of two hundred thousand pounds shall become due on the first day of August, and the first day of February in each year; and shall be made on or before the twenty-fifth day of March next ensuing such first day of August, and on the twenty-ninth day of September next ensuing such first day of February respectively, in each year; the first of which half-yearly payments shall become clue on the first day of August, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven; and be made on or before the twenty-fifth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight; and in case the said United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, or their successors, shall make failure in any of the said payments hereby appointed to be made into the receipt of His Majesty's Exchequer, on or before the respective days or times herein before limited; that then, from time to time, as often as such case shall so happen, the money, whereof such failure in payment shall be made, shall and may be recovered to His Majesty's use, by action of debt, or upon the case, bill, suit or information, in any of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, wherein no essoin, protection, privilege, or wager of law, shall be allowed, or any more than one imparlance; in which action, bill, suit or information, it shall be lawful to declare, that the said United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, or their successors, are indebted to His Majesty the moneys of which they shall have made default in payment, according to the form of this statute, and have not paid the same, which shall be sufficient; and in or upon such action, bill, suit or information, there shall be further recovered, to His Majesty's use, against the said United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, or their successors, damages, after the rate of fifteen pounds per centum per annum, for the respective moneys so unpaid, contrary to this act, together with full costs of suit; and the said United Company, and their successors, and all their stock, funds, and all other their estates and property whatsoever and wheresoever shall be, and are hereby made, subject and liable to the payment of such moneys, damages, and costs.

        II. And it is hereby further enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid, that all the said territorial acquisitions and revenues, lately obtained in the East Indies, shall remain in possession of the said United Company, and their successors, during the said term of two years, to be computed from the said first day of February, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven.

        III. Provided nevertheless, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if the said United Company, or their successors, shall be dispossessed by any foreign Power of any part of the said territorial acquisitions or revenues, at any time or times before the expiration of the said term of two years, to be computed from the first day of February, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven; then, and in every such case, and as often as such case shall so happen, the payment of the said annual sum of four hundred thousand pounds, for or in respect of the time or times during which the said Company, or their successors, shall remain so dispossessed, shall be reduced in such proportion to the whole of the said annual sum as the net income and profits of the territorial acquisitions and revenues, of which the said Company, or their successors, shall have been so dispossessed, shall have borne to the whole of the net income and profits of all the said territorial acquisitions and revenues, upon the average of the year preceding their being so dispossessed; and if it shall happen that any payment or payments shall have been made, for or in respect of any time or times during which the said Company, or their successors, shall have been so dispossessed as aforesaid, such proportional part of the moneys as shall have been so paid for or in respect thereof, or so much of such proportional part of the said moneys as shall not have been appropriated in manner herein. after mentioned, shall be repaid and refunded at the said Receipt of the Exchequer to the said Company, or their successors; and, in lieu of  the money which shall have been so appropriated, a sum equal thereto shall be paid to the said Company, or their successors, out of the fund commonly called the Sinking Fund; which payment is hereby charged upon the said Fund, and shall be made thereout, after paying, or reserving sufficient to pay, all previous charges thereupon; anything herein before contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

        IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the moneys which shall be paid into the Receipt of His Majesty's Exchequer, in pursuance of this Act, shall be there reserved to be disposed of and appropriated by Parliament.

From: A. Berriedale Keith, ed. Speeches and Documents on Indian Policy, 1750-1921. Vol. I. London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1922, 30-34.