Land tax was the key device of the British colonial authorities of all its colonies to make the natives productive in monetary terms. Native farmers and rangers were compelled to produce more than their families needed for consumption and to sell the surplus in the market for money issued by the Company to pay land taxes. Most of the tax revenue did not stay in India or other colonies for local development. It flowed to England as dividends for British shareholders.

All investments in India and other colonies were directed toward raising trade profit for the Company, rather than to improve the welfare of the natives. As the Bengal famine approached its most severe stage in April 1770, the Company announced a further increase of the land tax to 60% of potential production value.

The Company forbade the "hoarding" of rice at a good harvest so that it could maximize profit from low prices it paid growers due to a supply glut, thus preventing traders and dealers from holding reserves to feed the native population during lean periods. It also paid farmers to plant opium and tea cash crops instead of rice to increase company profit.

The tea that was dumped into the harbor by members of the Boston Tea Party in the American Revolution in 1773 was British East India Company property. American colonists were protesting against the British East India Company's monopoly over tea exports to the colonies. By the time of the famine, full monopoly in grain trading had been firmly established in India by the Company and its agents. The Company had no plan for dealing with the grain shortage besides measures to assure food supply for British executives and their native employees. Globally, company profit doubled in the decade of the famine.

The British East India had its own Army of some 24,000 men!...........