David Sassoon

"David Sassoon and the equally canny Parsee magnates up on Malabar Hill waited until the vanguard had painfully cut their wisdom teeth. The new mills were badly ventilated, with fire a chronic hazard. Native labour was casual and mostly too unskilled to handle even the old-fashioned machinery. Cleaning and ginning remained primitive, largely by hand and foot-rollers, while the yarn itself was unsuitable for the newly developed British looms. America found it easy to deliver better quality cotton more cheaply and faster. Before the opening of the Suez Canal, cargoes from Alabama would be unloading in England while Indian yarn was still puffing up the coast of Africa."

"David Sassoon was among those who declined to stand. He acted instead as the community's unofficial leader and spokesman, relying on his father's name and prestige. The family's fortune was still considerable, but much of it dispersed in caravanserais throughout Asia, as the Pasha was perfectly aware. Daud might tighten the screws by taxation but obviously needed subtler methods. He therefore planned to arrest selected Jews whose ransom would probably be paid by their richer brethren."

"When transactions did not turn out well, some preferred to store their unsold goods or sell on a commission basis rather than sacrifice them to the sly sharks on the waterfront. They were eager to load their caravans with merchandise for the long trek back to Afghanistan and even to Russia beyond. With little expectation of returning for many months from their orchards and bazaars, most were desperate for the credit which few Parsees cared to extend or only at ruinous rates of interest. David Sassoon was available and sympathetic. He accepted risks which seemed foolhardy to conservative British firms and even less attractive to the local moneylenders who liked to have their victims, mainly illiterate smallholders, within easy grasp."

"Often it took five months to reach Bombay from England, but the new steamship services would surely send up the values ofall foreshore property. With his first profits David Sassoon therefore began to buy up wharfages in Bombay. He was following in the tracks of the Parsees, but with one essential difference. They acted mainly as local middlemen and used their assets to buy land or lend money to the peasants. He preferred to nuzzle the warmth of foreign trade and was quickly among the captains of the bulging dhows which poured ceaselessly into the Bay of Bengal. By offering them dock space, he automatically had the first pick of goods before they reached the city booths. Many a trader would be stranded in port and short of money while waiting for the monsoons to pass. When they were ready to sail home, half their fresh cargoes would often be Sassoon merchandise. Some who had sold their own wares in Bombay were also tempted to invest in wools, gay chintzes, dye-stuffs and turquoises for the return journey. For this they needed additional capital or the services of a trusted go-between. Sassoon was at hand in both capacities."

"David Sassoon had soon discovered the advantages of having his capital and interest repaid in goods which he could then resell for an additional profit. His policy was more than justified, but it demanded harsh routine. In this new country he had first to master a primitive system of weights and measures which often varied from district to district. With a world market in prospect far beyond his previous experience, he familiarized himselfwith a wider range of prices and commodities and even started to explore the intricacies of the Stock Exchange. He acquired a working command of Hindi which he spoke with the measured diction ofone naturally fastidious with words. He was almost as sparing in the use ofHebrew and Arabic, his two natural languages. A number of his letters have been preserved; they are incisive, very much to the point, and written in a clear script unusually free from the typical flourishes and affectations of the period."

"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."

"The cotton magnate and first Parsee baronet, Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, once declared emphatically that 'the chief cause of David Sassoon's success was the use he made of his sons'. He trained them to be chorus masters, with himself as conductor. Dressed in the flowing robes and turbans of Baghdad and always moving respectfully behind their parent, they looked hardly distinguishable. But differences in age and status were soon reflected in personality."

"David Sassoon was, however, wise enough to see the dangers of becoming too inward-looking and parochial. He endowed the Gothic-style Sassoon General Hospital at Poona for the benefit of all sects and creeds of Indians, as well as Jewish patients. Built on two floors with accommodation for two hundred men and women, it was equipped on the most modern Western scale, together with a hostel for doctors and nurses. Separate buildings were put up for lepers and maternity cases. The usual massive clock tower was included in the architect's plans. Punctuality was the first unoriental habit David Sassoon picked up from the British. He also gave generously towards an asylum in Poona for the relief of destitute invalids, aware that after-care might be desperately needed by those discharged from hospital, still crippled and unable to work. He once returned thoughtfully from visiting Abdullah's villa at Mahabaleshwar where European fruits and vegetables flourished in a red clay soil. He could not help contrasting its vivid flowers and the woods swarming with wild birds and game with the filth and flies he had just left below in Bombay. He soon bought a few acres and set them aside as camping grounds for the poor."