DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27741#0013
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PREFATORY NOTE.
HIS biography of the !ate Mr. Prem-
ia chund Roychund has its origin in
the very natural desire of his family
to collect and preserve for a permanent
reference some of the most stirring reminis-
cences of his chequered life, specially
its earliest phase, which is so indis-
solubly bound up with the economic and
financial history of Bombay between 1863
and 1865. It was the time of immense
activity in the cotton trade, consequent
on the extreme scarcity of the raw staple
in Lancashire during the trying period of
the American Civil War. The profits
actually realised were phenomenally large
and might have been remuneratively em-
ployed in the extension and developmen!
of many an old industry and fostering
new ones. But a mania had seized the
wealthy citizens of those days to vie with
1
PREFATORY NOTE.
HIS biography of the !ate Mr. Prem-
ia chund Roychund has its origin in
the very natural desire of his family
to collect and preserve for a permanent
reference some of the most stirring reminis-
cences of his chequered life, specially
its earliest phase, which is so indis-
solubly bound up with the economic and
financial history of Bombay between 1863
and 1865. It was the time of immense
activity in the cotton trade, consequent
on the extreme scarcity of the raw staple
in Lancashire during the trying period of
the American Civil War. The profits
actually realised were phenomenally large
and might have been remuneratively em-
ployed in the extension and developmen!
of many an old industry and fostering
new ones. But a mania had seized the
wealthy citizens of those days to vie with
1