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Rh subordinate to Madras, had been declared an independent presidency so early as the year 1707; and in 1717 a firman granted by the Mogul had exempted the Company's trade from duties, and permitted them to purchase and hold possession of land in the neighbourhood of their several factories. In 1726 a charter obtained from the crown authorised the establishment of courts of justice at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, for the trial of all causes, civil and criminal, high treason only excepted. In 1746 the French took Madras, which however was restored two years after on the termination of the war. In 1749 the Company obtained possession of the town and district of Devicotah, in Tanjore, by a negociation with the rajah of that country, after they had unsuccessfully attempted to depose him at the solicitation of his half-brother, from whom he had shortly before wrested the crown—a transaction which may be regarded as the first in which they openly took part in the politics of India, and as that which laid the foundation of their subsequent military power. Clive's operations range from the year 1751 to the end of the present period, in the course of which space of time Calcutta was taken by Surajah-ul-Dowlah, the subahdar of Bengal, in June 1756, but retaken in January following; the French settlement of Chandernagore was captured in March 1757; the power of Surajah-ul-Dowlah was overthrown at the battle of Plassy, in June, that same year; and before the end of the year 1760 every fort and factory belonging to the French had fallen into the hands of their rivals, except Pondicherry, which also surrendered in January, 1761. All this time, however, while the Company was making such advances in the acquisition of political power and even of territorial possessions, no great increase appears to have taken place in its trade. On the average of the eight years ending with 1741 the value of the British produce and goods of all sorts annually exported to India and China was no more than 147,944l.; and on that of the seven years ending with 1748 it had only increased to 188,176l. The average annual export of bullion during the last seven years was 548,711l. For some years after this there was a