Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3.t8.3

v1.c5.s3.t8.3

The founder of the business, Nusserwanji Tata, in December 1859 established a firm called Jamsetji & Ardeshir in Hong Kong's Hollywood Road, with two partners, Premchand Roychand and Kaliandas. This firm imported opium and cotton from India, and exported tea, silk, camphor, cinnamon, copper, brass and Chinese gold. Nusserwanji sent his son, Jamsetji Nusserwanji, to Hong Kong to assist in the business. Jamsetji Nusserwanji, the real founder of the family's fortunes, spent four years in China from 1859 to 1863 during which he opened a branch of the firm in Shanghai as well. In the great Bombay stock market crash of 1864, the Tatas was among the many business firms of Bombay that was badly jolted and they temporarily retrenched their China business interests. A few years later, however, Nusserwanji visited China and Japan and tried to revive the firm's branch in Hong Kong. He collected porcelain and other items of art during this trip, marking the start of the Tata collection of oriental art which is now housed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum) in Bombay. Nusserwanji invested funds in a firm run by two of his brothers-in-law, Dadabhai and Sorabji, which had been trading for some time in East Asia under the name D C Tata, and the firm was renamed Tata & Co Nusserwanji and his son J N Tata occasionally retained some interests in this firm which was managed by Dadabhai and then his son.