Accounts of official money-laundering in the Raj - The Observer

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The distinctive forms of nineteenth century exploitation of India by
industrial capital did not exclude the continuance of the old forms of
direct plunder, which were also carried forward and at the same time
transformed.

The "tribute", as it was still openly called by official spokesmen up to
the middle of the nineteenth century, or direct annual removal of millions
of pounds of wealth to England, both under the claim "home charges" as well
as by private refitting, without return of goods to India, continued and
grew rapidly throughout the 19th century alongside the growth of trade. In
the 20th century it grew even more rapidly alongside a relative decline in
trade.

In 1848, before the House of Commons Select Committee on Sugar and Coffee
Planting in the West and East Indies, Colonel Sykes, a Director of the East
India Company, estimated this "tribute" at =A33.5 million a year. Similarly

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