J. N. Tata

"After only ten years of independent trading, Elias and his sons felt equipped, both psychologically and financially, to give a lead to the more complacent parent firm. Cotton manufacture was an obvious outlet, but Sassoon caution made Elias hesitate until a Parsee had again shown the way. J. N. Tata recovered from his misadventures with Premchand Roychand and indirectly profited by his experiences in the false boom. During the ill-starred attempt to open an Indian Bank in England, he hurried to Lancashire to develop the brokerage side of their business. He interested himself in machinery and the workings of the Manchester Cotton Exchange. On his return, he thought much about the possibilities of manufacturing cotton locally instead of relying on Lancashire's piecegoods. Fourteen mills were now operating in Bombay with about half a million spindles, but many more had closed down through lack of money or bad management. To rebuild his capital Tata had first gone to Hong Kong, exchanging silk goods for the opium his brother shipped out from Bombay. Profits were satisfactory, but he saw little chance of breaking either the Sassoons' hold on this two-way traffic or the handsome rebates and discounts which they and others enjoyed in the freight market. He returned to India in 1869, investing his limited funds in a disused oil-pressing plant which he rapidly converted into a small cotton mill. The output was insignificant and not of good quality, but he familiarized himself with machinery and day-to-day administration. He recovered his whole outlay in two years and sold the plant at a respectable profit."

"Even the normally level-headed Parsees were caught up in this orgy of speculation. J. N. Tata, destined to become India's leading industrialist and social benefactor, was among the earliest victims. The son of a prosperous contractor, he had hastened back from China to join the textile boom. He became fascinated by an eager little broker, one Premchand Roychand, who had established agencies in several cotton-growing districts, and held court in Mazagon where his mansion became a miniature stock exchange, from dawn onwards. Friends, hangers-on, gamblers and share-pushers made their daily pilgrimage up the hill to wait patiently for a hint that could turn to gold. A pencilled note from Roychand would at once unlock the coffers of the Bank of Bombay in which the Government held shares. The directors had feverishly altered their Charter, doubled the capital reserve and were eager to offer almost unlimited advances to the wildest of speculators."