Individuals with a close interest in Indian affairs became deeply uneasy about the East India Company's general financial situation during the summer of 1771. This concern was prompted by the realization that the Company's servants had far exceeded the limits that had been set in 1768 and 1769 on the submission of bills of exchange from Bengal to be drawn upon the Company in London. Furthermore, these bills had not been drawn up in compliance with the strict terms laid down by the directors. By July 1771 vast numbers of bills were arriving at India House. Sir George Colebrooke later claimed that had he been a director at the time he would have refused to sanction acceptance of the bills, but, on 31 July, the Committees of Accounts and Correspondence recommended that they be honoured ‘as it was alleged that the credit of the Company might be hurt in the severest manner by refusing’. As a result of this decision there was a fivefold increase in the value of the bills that the Company was liable to honour, from £296,562 in 1770/1 to £1,577,959 in 1771/2.

In October 1769 the Bengal Council had decided that it was necessary for them to set up an exigency fund at Fort William because the sums accruing from the territorial revenues were not living up to their expectations, and the civil and military expenses of the Presidency were continuing to rise at an alarming rate.