Article Written By EIH Researcher And Writer
Aparrna R. Menon
A pirate aisle notoriously unsafe for conducting trade, Bombay, later on, emerged as the ‘most important city east of the Suez’. How did this port which had much less to offer, play this dominant role in a large network of trade? This story of Bombay begins in 1661. The islands were handed over by the Portuguese to the British Crown, on the marriage of Catherine of Braganza and Charles II, as a dowry. As the significance of Bombay wasn’t quite identified back then, the King of Britain then leased it to the East India Company in 1668 for an annual sum of 9 pounds sterling. The fate of Bombay was about to change.
For several years, the port of Surat had been playing a dominant role on the west coast of the subcontinent. However, a series of events that unfurled by the end of the 17th century made it necessary to find an alternative. The increasing harassment faced by company merchants confirmed the Surat port to be less secure for the British. Against this backdrop, a decision was taken to shift the Company’s naval force from Surat to Bombay which actualized in 1687. In the same year, Bombay was chosen as the headquarters of the west coast of the subcontinent. The region was away from the grasp of the Mughal mutassadi or governor of Surat which meant easy fortification without causing offence. Setting up in Bombay would also ensure the control of the Portuguese and the Dutch in the south. The strategic location of the islands was employed to its benefit to expand trade and influence. The naval administrator Samuel Pepys notes how Bombay’s natural harbour compensated for the demerits of it being “a poor little island.” Officials like the Bombay governor Humphrey Brooke (1664-1666) saw the fortunes that Bombay would bring as a trade centre to the English; an equivalent of how Batavia profited the Dutch.
By the mid-17th century, Bombay was incorporated into the larger trading networks. In the 200 years that followed, it became a global hub for commerce. The shipbuilding facilities revved this process along with its location and the existence of a strong naval power. Lowjee Nusserwanjee Wadia, a Parsi builder who migrated from Surat to Bombay in 1736 based the ship-building on the islands. He popularised the shipyard of Bombay with several constructions that he made for the company and private merchants. The fame that came with the talent brought by Wadia made the British opt for Bombay as the base to build their warships. The oaks were also coming to be scarce in Europe. The Wadia ships were sturdy with the finest teak hulls and masts which made them admirable. Interestingly, one of these royal navy warships, the Cornwallis, even played a cameo appearance in the history of China as the treaty of Nanking between China and Britain was signed onboard!
This opens us to a very poignant role played by Bombay in the triangular trade system which was actively participated by Britain, China, and the Indian subcontinent. As Prof Amar Farooqui opines, ‘the destiny of Bombay as a great commercial and industrial centre was born of it becoming an accomplice in the drugging of countless Chinese with opium, a venture in which the Indian business class showed great zeal along with the British.’ The year 1784 recorded an increase in the export of raw cotton to China. But the greater demand for Chinese tea disabled the English East India Company’s attempt for a profitable trade. What came out of this was a disastrous decision to smuggle opium into China. The Bombay merchant class grabbed what they saw as an opportunity and expanded the cultivation of cotton and opium to the hinterlands. Farooqui notes how by the 1820s, a large number of Parsees, Marwaris, Gujaratis and Konkani Muslims had shifted into the opium trade. Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, fondly known for his philanthropy also did not shy away from making a fortune by trading cotton and opium with China. Opium gave the Bombay bourgeois an important source of accumulation. All of this and the capital brought by the indigenous presence in commercial activity was piped into the industrial development in Bombay to make it an important centre of production. The urban developments of early Victorian Bombay are to be placed in this context. A series of production units were set up across Bombay. The first was a cotton mill set up at Tardeo by Parsi merchant Cowasjee Nanabhoy Davar in 1851. This was followed by the Oriental Spinning & Weaving Company which was founded by Maneckjee Nusserwanjee Petit in 1855. The cotton mill industry developed extensively in the western region from this time. The markets of China, Japan, and Africa provided promise for these mills. More spinning mills were installed as opposed to weaving mills since China offered a good market for coarse Indian yarn. There was a heavy competition to dominate the markets that Bombay had to face which made it necessary to rely more on the home market; a decision that came in very handy, particularly during the Swadeshi movement which sought products made at home.
The platform that Bombay proposed for trade, commercial growth, and connections attracted migrants, mainly the trading community post-18th century. Another promising bid was offered by EEIC in granting religious freedom, and tax breaks that further drove more people to this city of dreams. The communities of Bhatia, Jain, Marwari, Bohra, Khoja, Memon, Parsi, and later Partition refugees, like Sindhi and Sikh brought cultural diversity to the already vibrant Bombay. The influence of trade in the Persian Gulf, the coastal region of the Red Sea, East Asia, and in 19th century Continental Europe and the United States made Bombay a favourable location to migrate to even to a global audience. When Bombay’s fortune seemed like it could not get any better, the Suez Canal opened up in 1870 which cut the duration to travel to Europe more than by half. Thus, the foreign trading communities including Bagdhadhi Jews, Turks, Iranians, Chinese, Japanese, Armenians, French, and Italians set foot in Bombay. They established banks, joint ventures, and shipping lines, attracted diplomatic missions, and so on. The Chinese cemetery at Antop hill, Nipponzan Myohoji temple, the Irani masjid, the Bene Israel synagogue, and several multifarious structures that are dispersed across Bombay are fragments that open windows to reflect this vibrant memory. These aspects of cosmopolitanism brought by migration also seeped into the arts and films with the prime example provided by the European influence in theatrics. The political, social, and intellectual upheaval in Mumbai during the interwar years is also largely owed to the German refugees that made their way into Bombay.
The colonial past of this city of dreams is multifaceted. Just like how the aspects of trade, diversity, and network constitute an enchanting part of Bombay’s history, the colonial baggage of this city also attempts to weigh down the tales of the past. Authors like Sifra Lentin’s work attempt to resurrect to public memory, Bombay’s role as a global financial hub at a time when the bigger names of today Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Yokohama were only making their debut. Mumbai still holds a lot of the potential to influence the world like before. But that’s the story only time can tell us.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lentin, Sifra. Mercantile Bombay: A Journey of Trade, Finance, and Enterprise. Routledge, 2022.
Farooqui, Amar. “Urban Development in a Colonial Situation: Early Nineteenth Century Bombay.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 31, no. 40, 1996, pp. 2746–59. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4404661. Accessed 17 Feb. 2023.
Maloni, Ruby. “SURAT TO BOMBAY: TRANSFER OF COMMERCIAL POWER.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 62, 2001, pp. 278–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44155771. Accessed 17 Feb. 2023.
Samuel Scott, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
