It is unnecessary to enter into all the details of the plan finally adopted in September, 1765, which were chiefly arranged by Mr. Sumner. The salt trade was to be conducted solely by a society composed of all the higher officers of Government, civil and military; their capital was to consist of a certain number of shares; the civil servants, as low down as factors, the military, as low down as majors, were to hold shares; chaplains and surgeons had also their shares; the capital for carrying on the trade was to be furnished by the sharers, in their due proportions. The affairs of the Society were conducted by a committee; the salt was to be furnished to them by contractors, and was to be sold at various grand stations by agents, generally Europeans, appointed by the Committee, the purchasers from whom could carry and sell it over the country at pleasure; 35 per cent. on the price was allowed as a tax to the company[78], who had now come into the Nabob's place; the selling price, at the different remote stations, was also fixed at rates 12 or 15 per cent. below what was found to have been the average rate of the twenty years preceding. Besides providing ample allowances to the chief of the Company's servants, the great advantage of this plan was, that it allowed them to withdraw their attention wholly from trade.[79] They were sleeping partners of a sure and profitable concern, the whole details of which, without any care on their part, was managed by a committee devoted to the business.