Governor-General Lord Wellesly came to India in 1798 at a time when the British were locked in a life and death struggle with France all over the world.
The fear of Napoleon haunted the Britishers everywhere.
To achieve his political aims, Wellesly relied on the system of Subsidiary Alliance.
While the practice of helping Indian rulers with a paid British force was quite old, it was given shape by Wellesley who used it to sub-ordinate the Indian states to the paramountcy of the company.
Under the subsidiary Alliance system, the ruler of the allying state was compelled to accept the permanent stationing of a British force within his territory and to pay a subsidy for its maintenance.
However, to secure a fixed income for the company was not under the agenda of the Subsidiary Alliance.
