Concern about the conduct and behaviour of Company servants in Bengal was not the only aspect of Indian affairs to trouble ministers during the early months of 1772. The Company had experienced a series of financial difficulties, and this indicated that the economic benefits promised by the assumption of the Diwani were not being fully realized. On the contrary, the Company appeared to be locked into a deepening financial crisis. This crisis fully manifested itself during the second half of the year when the Company defaulted on customs payments and then failed to repay substantial loans to the Bank of England. Although these difficulties were undoubtedly exacerbated by the general European credit crisis of 1772, they also suggested a breakdown in the Anglo- Indian economic connexion, and the ministry, threatened by nonpayment on a number of accounts, was forced into legislative action. As in 1767, financial considerations, above all else, prompted government intervention in the Company's affairs.

At first it had appeared that Clive's arrangements for the collection of revenue in Bengal would bear the expected fruit. In 1765 the Company already collected revenue in the districts of Burdwan, Chittagong, Midnapur, and the area known as the Twenty-Four Parganas; and this, which was intended to pay for the Company's armies, raised a net income of around £600,000 a year (see Table 2).