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

CHAP. IL] THE READVMONEV BROTHERS. 57

We now come to the Readymoney family. Three brothers—Mancherji Jivanji, Hirji Jivanji, and Temulji Jivanji—were all born at Navsari. They came to Bombay in the early part of the eighteenth century and settled there for purposes of trade. Hirji, the second of the brothers, was the most enterprising of the three. He went to China and there opened a house of business. On his return to Bombay his brother Mancherji went to look after the China firm, and although they possessed only a small capital at the time of their arrival in Bombay they acquired considerable wealth through their trade with China. Much of the wealth of the Bombay Parsis has been derived from their trade with China, and to Hirji and Mancherji Readymoney are due the honour and credit of opening this new field of commercial enterprise, which in subsequent years brought immense prosperity to the Parsis of Western India. The Readymoney brothers owned several trading ships, one of which was named Hornby after the Governor of Bombay, and the other was called the Royal Charlotte. They derived their surname of Readymoney on account of their wealth, and also from their readiness

to advance money to those who were in need.?

1 The small tower of silence which is visible on the road leading from Chaupati to Malabar Hill in Bombay was built by Mancherji for the disposal of his body after death. Before this time no Parsi had built a tower of silence for the disposal of his own individual body. It is said that when Mancherji returned from China to Bom-