Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, CSI (24 May 1812 – 19 July 1878) was a Parsi community leader, philanthropist and industrialist of Bombay, India. Family and background Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney came from a wealthy Parsi family. His great-grandfather and two great-uncles had moved in the early 18th century from Navsari near Surat to Bombay and had become pioneers in the lucrative opium trade with China. The brothers were cash-rich and worked as bankers to various British clients, and they earned for themselves the sobriquet "Readymoney," which they later adopted as a surname. Among the three brothers, only Hirji Jewanji Readymoney was blessed with surviving issue, two daughters. He arranged in the usual Indian way for them to marry into families of their own community and similar background. The girls were married into wealthy Parsi families; the elder married a Banaji, the younger a Dady Sett (or Dadiseth). In the next generation, the son of the elder daughter, Jehangir Hirji, married the daughter of the younger daughter, Mirbai, again in a match arranged by their families in the usual Indian way. Jehangir Hirji was designated the heir of his grandfather and his two granduncles. He and Mirbai were blessed with two sons. The elder was the father of Jehangir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney and the younger was Cowasji Jehangir, the subject of this page. Business career Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney's only formal education was at the (then) well-known school kept by Serjeant Sykes at one of Bombay's forts. At the age of 15, Readymoney entered the firm of Duncan, Gibb & Co. as "godown keeper," or warehouse clerk. In 1837 Readymoney was promoted to the responsible and lucrative appointment of "guarantee broker" to two leading European firms in Bombay. By 1846 he was able to begin trading on his own account. In 1866 Readymoney was appointed a commissioner of income tax, his tactful management being largely responsible for the fact that this tax, then new to Bombay and unpopular, was levied with unexpected financial success. Public service and philanthropy Readymoney was appointed Justice of the Peace for the town and island of Bombay and a member of the Board of Conservancy. He was invested as a Companion of The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (C.S.I) in 1871. In 1872, he was created a Knight Bachelor of the United Kingdom in recognition of his donations to the Indian Institute in London and