Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3.t5.5

v1.c5.s3.t5.5

1756. In this period, as a by-product of the tea trade between China and Britain, raw cotton from western India began to be shipped to Canton (Guangzhou) to pay for the rapidly growing export of tea from China. Enterprising Parsi merchants were among the earliest to profit from the spurt in trade between Bombay and China from the last quarter of the 18^th century CE. One of the earliest Parsi firms to be established at Canton was that of Cowasjee Pallanjee & Co (1794). The great Parsi merchant and benefactor Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who played a major role in the growth of Bombay in the first half of the 19^th century CE, made his fortune in the trade with China. The raw cotton and opium trade and the shipping business with China contributed to the rise of many other prominent Parsi families as well, including the Banajis, Wadias, Petits, Tatas, Dadiseths, Camas and others. Later, when several leading Parsi businessmen ventured into the newly emerging cotton textile industry in India in the second half of the 19^th century CE, they exported a significant portion of the cotton yarn produced in their factories to China.