F & B (Canteen) Token - Dhanraj Mills Ltd. Bombay. ½ Anna CanteenToken

[asm]

F & B (Canteen) Token - Dhanraj Mills Ltd.

Inscription in English – Dhanraj Mills / Bombay    REVERSE: CanteenToken ½
Value: ½ Anna
Square Token with rounded edges and Hole in the center.
Metal: Brass Weight: 3.88 g. Size: 20.3 mm X 20.3 mm

About the Mill: In the year 1935, Dhanrajgiriji Raja Narasingirji promoted a public limited company called "Dhanraj Mills Ltd." at Sun Mill Road, Lower Parel, Bombay. The mill was incorporated and registered on 23 April 1935. Mr Dhanrajgiri Raja was appointed as Managing Agent for a period of 50 years. When the company faced financial difficulties in 1937, Mr. Ramgopal Ganpatrai Ruia, who agreed to bring in the necessary finance, was made the new managing agent replacing Dhanrajgiri Raja. The Mills seem to have a chequered carrier. The Bombay High Court had passed orders on 21-1-1959 for winding up the company and appointing an official liquidator. Some records indicate that the Mill was restarted thereafter as a Private Limited company. It was operational till the early 2000's.

Amit

[Figleaf]

I hope you will understand I find the company histories you write up at least as interesting as the tokens.

In this case, reading between the lines, I see a classical pattern: an enthusiastic and energetic would-be entrepreneur with a vision comes up with what seems to be a credible business case. Small investors fall in droves for the story, so a few professional large ones come on board also. Business is great and as the company grows, the vision of the entrepreneur, now general manager, widens accordingly. One new investment follows another until the large investors note that liquidity totally depends on the inflow of new capital from small investors. They start selling off their share.

After a while, the business runs out of money. The big investors shrug and take the loss. The small ones still believe in the story, but no longer in the general manager. If this is not the end of the line, a new investor steps in, reorganises the finances, comes up with a more realistic business plan, fails to change the name of the company and finds that the image of the company has suffered from the previous episode to the point where the business is no longer viable. After a protracted struggle, the company winds up.

In a handful of cases, the re-start succeeds, mostly because of government intervention (the Channel tunnel is an example), but at the expense of the remaining old (small) investors.

This scenario is still playing out everywhere in the world, notably around crypto "currencies". Note that the main victims are always the once enthusiastic small investors.

Peter

[krishna]

yes bank is the classic case in indian markets currently, here the IPO subscribers and equity shareholders got decimated, and more unjustly, the perpetuity bond owners, were also denied payment

a glaring case of a bank started by technocrats, then taken over by the owner (general manager), went bust,  then taken over by the government nominated investors, who so called rescued the bank from failing, by recapitalization at 1/100th of the average stock value

[Alex Island]

Dhanraj Mills Ltd. Lower Parel, Bombay

Map search points to Parel Island. Was the factory on this island?

[asm]

Map search points to Parel Island. Was the factory on this island?

Yes. As I mentioned in the main post

In the year 1935, Dhanrajgiriji Raja Narasingirji promoted a public limited company called "Dhanraj Mills Ltd." at Sun Mill Road, Lower Parel, Bombay. The mill was incorporated and registered on 23 April 1935.

.
I am not sure if Parel was an island as late as in 1935.

Amit

PS: If this were to be regarded as an island, there were many textile mills on this 'island'.

[krishna]

Most of mumbai reclamation got finished by 1925, however it lasted till 1990s in bits and pieces
Thus parel cannot be considered an island as the mill was founded in 1935

[Bimat]

Parel area of Mumbai had large number of textile mills till 80's... All of those were shut down after the Great Bombay Textile Strike of 1982. All those large land parcels are now occupied by huge malls, ultra-expensive residential projects etc.

Aditya