Which one of the following statements does not apply to the system of Subsidiary Alliance introduced by Lord Wellesley?

The answer is C, because the question asks for the statement that does not describe the system. Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance (1798 onward, with Hyderabad, Mysore and Awadh among the first) was a political instrument, not a revenue scheme. The fixed subsidy did come to the Company, so the option is only partly false, but the stated aim of the system was control.

• A applies. The ruler paid for a British force stationed in his territory, so the Company maintained a large army at the state's expense.
• B applies as the stated rationale. Wellesley justified the alliances by the French threat under Napoleon, and this was the reason given to London.
• D applies. Under the alliance the ruler gave up foreign relations and accepted a British Resident, which established British paramountcy.
• C does not fit the purpose. Subsidy payments were indeed a fixed sum, but the core objective was political supremacy, not a financial target.

The core concept is the Company's shift from trade to territorial power, which links to the Modern History unit on the expansion of British rule and to Mains questions on the Doctrine of Lapse and the states' loss of sovereignty.

Trap: candidates pick C because the subsidy was a fixed income. Read the question as asking what the system was designed to achieve.