One of the chief causes of the discord which prevailed in Bengal was the exemption from duties on their private trade, claimed by the Company's civil servants, who at that period were remunerated by their trade rather than their salaries. The system of collecting customs on the transit of goods in the interior of the country prevailed all over India; and in Bengal much inconvenience was felt, and many quarrels arose, from the number of tolls and inspections to which the Company's goods were liable, in common with all others, in their transit to and from the marts of purchase and sale. To obviate these, it was arranged with the Nabobs, in explanation of the Emperor's firman, that the Company's flag and _dustuck_[217], in their boats and other conveyances, should secure their goods from search; and as their trade consisted solely of goods from foreign parts for sale in the country, or of country goods for foreign exportation, the privilege only partially interfered with the trade of the interior. While the Nabobs and their officers were in full power, any abuse of this privilege was easily checked. But when, after the accession of Meer Jaffier, the English had become all-powerful, and it was dangerous to interfere with their acts, or to question their proceedings, the Company's servants, who had still the privilege of trading on their own account, not only covered their private adventures, by passports under the Company's name, but all their servants and dependents claimed an exemption from internal duties on the same plea, and besides entered deeply into the internal trade of the country. During the vigorous administration of Clive such attempts had been rare; but when all fear of correction was lost in the increasing weakness of his successors in the government, men set no limits to their efforts to enrich themselves. The Nabob's revenue was injured, and his authority insulted, in every quarter of his dominions, by the exemptions claimed for the trade of European agents, and the respect demanded for the persons of the lowest of their servants. Against their pretensions and excesses he made the most forcible remonstrance, but in vain. Many of the persons of whom he complained were members of Council; and it was not surprising, therefore, that difficulties should occur in any attempt made by the Governor to check and reform such abuses. Cossim Ali became impatient of delay; and finding his representations produce no effect, and that the orders of the government were either evaded or disobeyed, he himself took, and authorized measures of violence, that increased the discontent and hostility of the party opposed to Mr. Vansittart; many of whom were the persons chiefly benefited by the abuses complained of, who represented him as leaving British subjects and public servants of the Company at the will and mercy of a capricious tyrant whom he had unjustly raised to the throne.