Second-Wave Expansion with Relentless Caution

“They had no taste for pioneering. David Sassoon followed the Gubbays, Ezras and Ezekiels to India. He had only sent his son, Elias, to China after the Jardines and others had secured a foothold in the Treaty Ports. From the beginning and almost by instinct, he conformed to the classic tradition by launching his millions on the second wave.”

“Production remained a key problem in all the Sassoon mills. The manufacturing boom had stimulated such a demand that it was not always practical to wait for new factories to be built and equipped. Semi-derelict businesses - one of them had been wound up four times in the past twenty years - were therefore bought up cheaply. Ancient plant operated by steam engines and wheezy boilers was scrapped, and the latest machinery imported from England at whatever the cost. Efficient planning by Manchester experts was backed by dedicated Jewish overseers who gradually overcame the endless frictions and chaos of the old Managing Agency system. Working on similar and parallel lines, the two Sassoon firms soon went ahead of all their rivals, including Tata himself, who might have given them much severer competition had he not turned his attention to the richer fields of iron and steel. Even so, his early supporters had no cause to complain. The original £50 Empress Mill shares would be worth £700 by 1914!”