French Capture Madras

September 9, 1746

In the Carnatic, the French governor Dupleix sent a force that took Madras from the British East India Company. Robert Clive, a young clerk sent there to tally invoices, escaped in disguise and resolved to become a soldier. The future of India had quietly turned on an accountant's boredom. Madras was returned to Britain by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle two years later, but Clive never returned to his ledgers.