The Personal Fortune of Warren Hastings

7he size of Warren Hastings's private fortune was the subject of much speculation at the time of his impeachment. Many men who confessed themselves baffled by the voluminousness of the material produced by both sides and by the outlandish language in which this material was couched, apparently felt that a knowledge of Hastings's financial circumstances would give them some reliable guide for their sympathies. 'I have not yet looked into the charge, which fills a thick octavo', wrote Horace Walpole: 'My opinion is formed more summarily: innocence does not pave his way with diamonds, nor has a quarry of them on his estate.' 1 The prosecution did their best to portray Hastings as a man of immense riches in the popular tradition of all 'Nabobs'. The Opposition press circulated estimates of Hastings's fortune putting it at several hundred thousand pounds.2 These stories were denied by Hastings's supporters, and Major John Scott, Hastings's former agent, told the House of Commons that: 'The whole of Mr Hastings's fortune, taken together, ... did not exceed Qo,ooo0' 3 Such denials made little impression on the public at large who were reluctant to abandon popular myths. In I 787 the Prince of Wales's steward applied to Hastings's brother-in-law for a loan of ?200,000 for his master.4 In I 795, after the trial had ended, the public was given a precise figure for Hastings's fortune. In support of a claim for repayment of his legal expenses and for an annuity as a reward for his services, Hastings told the chairman of the East India Company in a letter which was subsequently published, that his entire property on his return from India had only exceeded his obligations by C655,3 I3.5 Hostile critics immediately concluded that he had declared only a portion of his wealth. But, although another Jio,ooo can be added to the total on a stricter interpretation of the material in Hastings's letter,6 as far as can be ascertained, he did not deliberately suppress or conceal anything. A fortune of no more than ?75,???, accumulated after thirteen years as governor or governor-general of Bengal, would suggest that Hastings had been remarkably abstemious in using the great opportunities for private profit, which, it was generally thought, had been open to him. The state of his fortune on his return to England is, however, misleading as an indication of the size of the profits which Hastings derived from his office. This article will show that the amount of money which Hastings sent out of India was

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