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

258 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. VI.

rivalry from other sections of the Indian population. Their rivals at first were the Khojas and other Mahomedan merchants from Bombay, who commenced to establish firms in China. But being as a class men of little or no education, they at first but slightly affected the position of the Parsis. Subsequently, however, some of the Jewish residents of Bombay and Calcutta entered into competition, and, being keener and more highly educated men of business, succeeded in gradually displacing Parsis in the China trade. While the Parsi merchants of China remained in the old groove, the Jews took better advantage of the new treaty ports in China and the opening up of trade on new lines of business. The extension of steam communication between India and China gradually extinguished the Parsi merchants’ service of sailing vessels, and last of all, when the civil war raged in the United States of America in 1862, the attention of the Parsis was to some extent diverted from their Chinese trade, by the greater attraction of the enormous profits in cotton trading with England. Long before this time the wealthy Kamas had established in 1855 a firm in England, which enjoyed a high reputation in the monetary circles of the great metropolis.

The end of the American War, however, followed

?

by what is termed the “share mania” period in

Bombay, brought ruin to many Parsi houses, and a