Several thousand stockholders provided the human fabric of the East India Company in Britain, but a much smaller body of men managed the Company and made the policies and decisions that defined its corporate values. Twenty-four directors and a supporting cast of officers and clerks worked at East India House to supervise, regulate, and control the Company's affairs. They processed vast amounts of information, formulated strategy, agreed decisions, and composed lengthy despatches that were sent to India, China, and elsewhere in the hope that the overseas servants would then act responsibly and in the best interests of the Company. Much depended, therefore, upon the skills, knowledge, and application of the men in London who acted as the guardians of the Company's interests and formed what became known as the ‘home government’ of India.

The profitable conduct of long-distance trade had always offered formidable challenges to the directors and their London servants, and the problems of distance and the slow speed of communication made it similarly difficult for them to govern a vast territorial empire. Those in the metropolis could do little to influence the course of expansion or the actions of Company servants, yet many critics of British activity in India were swift to point the finger of blame at the occupants of East India House. As reports of misrule and corruption began to filter back to Britain from India during the 1760s and 1770s, commentators argued that the roots of these problems lay in the mismanagement of the Company's affairs at home.