In the early years of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Natal provided an ideal environment in which Indian merchants could flourish. Under‐supplied with money and goods, with relative stability and with few bureaucratic hindrances, Indians could import both their goods, their skills and their time‐tested commercial and financial methods. Although the first wave of merchants found a niche mainly in the market for trade, credit and money‐ lending within the colony's Indian community, the potential and possibilities for breaking out …