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

cHaP, VI.] THE COTLON-SPINNING INDUSTRY. 247

of European officers. In fact, wherever wealth was to be acquired, or wherever the English standard was carried, the Parsis followed with fearless energy. The Parsi tradesman accompanied the British army to Kabul, and is now to be found in almost every city in India, foremost in every enterprise, and ready to take advantage of every opportunity.

Nor did the Parsis confine their attention to commerce and business. In the establishment in Bombay of banks and various other joint-stock companies the Parsis have been the prime movers. The Oriental Bank was started by a Parsi. When the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company was projected, the Parsis greatly assisted by taking up a large number of its shares,

One grand industry which has greatly assisted in increasing the prosperity of Bombay, and in which four millions sterling are invested, and which elves employment to thousands of persons, is the outcome of Parsi enterprise. To Kavasji Nanabhai Davar is due the credit of having first directed Parsi capital into this channel. His sagacity and commercial shrewdness established in 1854 the first cottonspinning factory worked by steam in Bombay. Little did the citizens of Bombay know that he then laid the foundation of a new staple industry which they see so prosperous and flourishing among them to-day.

Kavasji Davar’s concern was a joint-stock company,