On this day, the Governor-General in Council at Fort William passed an order stating that any ship arriving in Calcutta must deposit its gunpowder at the Atchepore (Achipur) magazine. The magazine had been built to store gunpowder. The ship would be issued a receipt and would be able to collect the gunpowder when it left Calcutta.
The order allowed a ship to keep 100 pounds of gunpowder, but the remaining amount was to be kept at the magazine. Any excess amount of gunpowder in any ship would be seized.
The amount of gunpowder in ships was limited because of fear of explosions and also perhaps to reduce chances of attacks on Fort William from the river or gunpowder passing into the hands of forces opposed to the British East India Company.
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