Wacha, Dinshaw Edulji: Premchund Roychund: his early life and career (Bombay, 1913)

and quickest intelligence. Here some of
his European clientele stood him in good
stead. He greatly relied on their fore-
casts as to the future of cotton prices in
Liverpool. With the help of those fore-
casts he began, slowly at first, establish-
ing agencies in the various cotton-grow-
ing districts, specially in Gujerat and
Kattyawar for the purchase of the raw
staple. Sales were effected in advance
and the margin of certain profits was
invariably secured. These cotton trans-
actions made him well known not only
among the export houses in the city but
among the traders inland. As he felt his
pulse his ventures grew larger and larger
and took bolder leaps hither and thither.
Times were propitious. The realisations
in cotton, be they on the spot or on con-
signments to Liverpool, were sure and
certain, and as the war progressed with
but few chances of peace, prices advanced
which were, of course, a greater incentive
to amass a large fortune. It was at this

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