History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. VI.] WIDESPREAD COMMERCE. 245

and contractors. The business of commission agents to the European merchantmen which used to arrive annually in Bombay was entirely monopolised by them. The Parsis were foremost to seize and take advantage of every opening created by the increase of British power and the advent of British merchants.

Within a few generations of their settling in Bombay they themselves commenced to trade with the most distant countries of Europe and Asia, and to follow the history of the commerce of Bombay is to trace that of the commercial enterprise of the Parsis. It is said that their direct trade with Europe was not very extensive, but it is unquestionable that from the time the island of Bombay was ceded to the English up to forty years ago the whole of the European trade of the port passed through their hands as middle-men in one shape or another. As regards their Eastern trade, it was direct and most extensive. The bulk of the commerce, including the valuable opium trade, of Bombay with China, in some of the ports of which they had established their own firms, was, until forty years ago, entirely in their hands, and many of the ships which carried the merchandise belonged to them. They, however, did not confine their operations to China alone. They had business relations on an extensive scale with Bengal, Burmah, and the Straits, and at one time there were Parsi firms even in Java and the Mauritius.