Charter of 1813 &1833

By 1813 the East India Company had been a territorial ruler for decades, but Parliament still had to keep renewing its trading charter every twenty years, as if it were still just a group of merchants. The Charter Acts of 1813 and 1833 are what happens when Parliament finally admits the Company's real character — and starts taking legislative power back from it, one Act at a time.

In two minutes

The Charter Act of 1813 asserted the Crown's sovereignty over Company territories in India while leaving its regulations unharmonised across presidencies, and the Charter Act of 1833 went further, creating a single unified legislature for the whole of India and appointing the first Law Commission to codify Indian law.

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