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Jain Gazette.
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current of external events-rose and fell-rose as high as it fell low. Now this ebb and flow in the river of life is not a vain freak of nature: it is an immutable law to which none can be exempt. Our great men thirty years ago launched upon the highseas of life at a favourable season and this is the only account of the sudden rise of a host of brilliant men in those days.
PROSPERITY OF PREMCHAND).
As we said above, that favouarble season was not in itself wholly a miracle of any sort. A new era of commercial enterprise was opened by the development of the great city which was the scene of his chequered life. New and promising fields of commerce were for the first time discovered by our Shetias. And those of them who had the comprehensive eye to take in at a glance the new opportunity, amassed inmense wealth. One of the most notable enterprises of Mr. Premchand was the reclamation of the Back Bay. By his tact, courage and induspor he achieved remarkable success in this and similar undertaking with the result that he became the master of the giant market of Bombay. He was for a time known as the “ King of the Share Bazar " And this was no empty title. At his bidding prices rose or sell to make or mar the fortunes of hundreds and thousands of merchants. The whole of the native commercial world of Bombay trembled at his word. Whenever he chose to do so, he could effect a virtual monopoly of any commodity that sirted him. At one time, the native marchants of Bombay concluded their correspondence by substituting the name of Shri Deva by that of Premchand to whom the addresses were referred for the mraket-rates of the next day! In those days, they say, Premchand was the lord of about nine crores of silver coin. Surely he belonged to the class of plutocrats of the carnegie type.
