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

CHAP. VI.] SILK FACTORIES. 249

spinning and weaving by machinery remains to be noted. Two silk factories had been at work for some years but without any success despite European management. At last the owners of one of them, Messrs. Sassoon and Co., engaged the services of a skilled Parsi artisan, Pestanji Dosabhai Kapadia. He was a native of Surat, and fully conversant with silk-weaying by manual labour in all its variety of colours and details. The rich “kinkobs” and other silk fabrics of Surat have deservedly established their reputation for colour, brilliancy, pattern, and glossiness, and though it is a matter of regret that the industry is gradually decaying for want of adequate support and patronage, there are yet enough native weavers who can live upon their products, and there is still room for hope that the industry mayrevive. Meanwhile it is worthy of note how the skill and enterprise of the Surat Parsi engaged by the Sassoon Mills have altogether altered the prospects of that factory for the better, His ingenuity, derived from previous practical experience, has enabled the factory to turn out very handsome fabrics which sell freely in the bazaar at a good profit. So great has been the success of this mill that a rival concern managed by the respectable and enterprising Hindu firm of Messrs, Tapidas Varjdas and Co. has amalgamated with it. This Parsi manager has now shown the way to making silk manufactories as successful in Bombay as cotton-mills.