160 THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONSsore of commercial competition. The nawab took badly to this: Who
were these British merchants to engage in war against other merchants
within his dominions? Besides, like Pharaoh, he had repented himself
of his weakness and felt he could do better a second time; after all, his
army far outnumbered British forces.
This time the British decided to be rid of ud-Dowlah. Seeking allies
among disaffected members of the Indian court—"How glorious it
would be for the Company to have a Nabob devoted to them!"—they
found Mir Jafar, the nawab's uncle by marriage and a commander of
his armed forces.^19 Local officials and traders were there to be bought
and sold, crossed and double-crossed. Using a shrewd Hindu mer
chant named Omichund (Umichand or Amin Chand) as intermediary,
the British bought Mir Jafar's treason with the promise to name him
nawab. Mir Jafar in turn committed himself to pay an elephantine for
tune for his elevation.
In the end, on 23 June 1757, the issue came down to a battle, at
Plassey (Placis, Palasi), a village ninety miles north of Calcutta—British
and allies on one side, nawab and minions on the other. The British
won, and winning, changed Indian history. The bards of imperial
greatness sing of Robert Clive, accountant-turned-commander. They
tell of generalship and treason and small but decisive precautions—like
covering the guns in a monsoon rain. The anti-imperialist iconoclasts
dismiss narrative, play down heroism (everyone is brave), and deplore
the readiness of local officials and magnates to be bought, their want
of loyalty.^20
But, of course, that is the Achilles heel of aristocratic empires like the
Moghul and its parts: What loyalty? The nawab began the battle with
fifty thousand troops, against three thousand for the British. Of the
fifty thousand, only twelve thousand actually fought for him, and these
withdrew so quickly that they suffered only five hundred casualties.
British losses numbered four Europeans and fourteen sepoys. And this
was one of history's decisive battles.^21
After victory came the counting. The sums eventually arrived at were
10 million rupees ( =£1.4 m. at an exchange of 7.14285 rupees to the
pound) to the company as compensation for losses; indemnities and
bribes for the resident merchants of Calcutta (5 m. rupees for the
British; 2 m. for the Armenians; 1 m. for the Indians); 5 million rupees
for the British naval squadron and army detachment; plus large per
sonal fees to members of the company council, of the order of over a
quarter-million rupees each.
The whole amounted to £2,340,000, five times the loot captured on