What did the peasants pay the British landlords as rent? What did the British now want instead and why? What would be the impact of synthetic indigo on the prices of natural indigo?
The landlords compelled the peasants to plant 15 per cent of their holdings with indigo and surrender the entire indigo harvest as rent. This was done by long-term contract.
The British wanted the peasants to pay compensation to be released from the 15 per cent agreement, because Germany had developed synthetic dye.
The synthetic indigo would have lowered the price of natural indigo, as synthetic indigo can be produced much faster than natural indigo. This would have caused losses to the British.