58 SOCIAL SCIENTIST the country trade.1 ° The agency houses began to crumble one after the other. And since the heaviest investment of the agency houses was in indigo, the planters were driven into a tight corner. The government of course came to their rescue. Amherst's Regulation VI of 1823 had allowed the planters the right "to recover advances with interest by a summary suit from the indigo crop.9511 But the planters were not quite happy with this. Then came Bentinck's Regulation V of 1830. It bound the Indian peasant by harsher contracts under which a ryot who, after taking advances from a planter, showed his unwillingness to sow indigo was liable to be prosecuted in the magistrate's court. Such insidious contracts, and for that matter, regulations, though highly unfair to the peasants, failed to satisfy the planters. Some newer economic measures were necessary and these were attempted by the Charter Act of 1833.12 Immediately before the renewal of the charter in 1833, the subject of settlement of British nationals in India was taken up by important business and commercial organizations in Britain who brought their influence to bear on the British government. The Liverpool East Indian Committee suggested unrestricted settlement of British nationals in India before the Parliamentary Select Committee.18 Plea for British Immigrants The same suggestion came from the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. According to the latter, the obvious means to increase the products and trade of India "was permitting British subjects to hold land."14 Holt Mackenzie when asked about the possible advantage of the settlement of British nationals in India said, "I consider every European who settles in India must add something to the revenue."15 We have already noted that among the most arduous Indian advocates of colonization were Ram Mohan Roy and Dwarakanath Tagore. In a meeting at the Calcutta Town Hall on 15 December 1829 they spoke vigorously for the unrestricted settlement of Europeans in India. Ram Mohan said: The background story of the Charter Act of 1833 will not be