PARSI CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GROWTH OF BOMBAY AND HONG KONG巴斯人在孟買和香港發展中的貢獻
This article argues that Parsis, by engaging extensively in India–China trade during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generated fortunes that underwrote the growth and modernization of Bombay and, to a significant extent, Hong Kong. It situates Parsi merchants—primarily from western India—wi...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
April 2004
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40010/3855 |
| Summary: | This article argues that Parsis, by engaging extensively in India–China trade during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generated fortunes that underwrote the growth and modernization of Bombay and, to a significant extent, Hong Kong. It situates Parsi merchants—primarily from western India—within a nexus of European firms, banking, and insurance, showing how their commercial networks financed urban expansion, the cotton-textile industry, shipbuilding, and retail enterprise, while simultaneously fostering social and cultural life through philanthropy. Drawing on biographical studies and archival material—most notably Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and related merchants, and the founding of banking and insurance institutions such as the Bank of Bombay, Mercantile Bank of India, and HSBC—this paper traces the trajectory from guarantee brokers to industrialists and financiers. It also highlights the social implications of this wealth, including substantial contributions to religious, educational, medical, and architectural institutions, and to charitable trusts that advanced higher technical education. In Hong Kong, Parsis' commerce contributed to the cosmopolitan mercantile milieu and philanthropic networks. The analysis emphasizes that the China connection enriched Bombay's urban, social, and intellectual life, beyond mere economic growth, and underlines the cross-cultural exchange that characterized this era of rapid modernization. The study contributes to understandings of Macao’s cultural minorities by illustrating how Parsi transnational capitalism shaped regional development and intercultural exchange in both Indian and Chinese ports. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |