Number of words: 355
It so happened that the King of Abyssinia (the Ethiopian Empire), for some strange reason, arrested the British ambassador and his staff. The two British officials sent to resolve the issue were also arrested and thrown into prison, forcing England to send in an armed force, which it did under the then Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army, Lieutenant General Sir Robert Napier. He left for Abyssinia with a force of 16,000 men. An army of such size would require someone to manage food, blankets and other logistical matters. The man recommended for the job was Nusserwanji Tata. The opportunity was a godsend for Nusserwanji, who was still recovering from his losses in the cotton trade. It was the year 1868. As the British troops sailed across the Gulf of Aden towards the Gulf of Zula in Abyssinia, the King realized his folly and committed suicide. The imprisoned British officials were released and the entire operation cost the British government a colossal sum of £ 10 million. Well, Nusserwanji took home a hefty sum of Rs. 40 lakh!
The money paved the way for father and son to rekindle their ambitions and, in 1869, Jamsetji bought a defunct oil mill in Bombay, which he converted into a cotton ginning mill. The mill, named Alexandria, ran successfully for two years before Jamsetji sold it at a profit. The mill and its subsequent sale were a prime example of Jamsetji’s out-of-the-box thinking.
He also visited London and Lancashire again in 1873 to update what he had learnt during his previous visit, and returned with plans to start his own spinning and weaving mill. Not that the task was easy; it would take four months for the machinery to reach India from Europe, the railway network in India itself was still far from widespread and bullock carts were the most common mode of transport. Nevertheless, cotton supply from America was again available in abundance and the period witnessed a race in India to open textile mills, mostly around Bombay or Ahmedabad.
Excerpted from Pg 14 of Tatas: How a family built a business and a nation by Girish Kuber