The Activity of Armenian Merchants in International Trade
Artsvi Bakhchinyan
The geographical location of Armenia defined its involvement in international trading activity
and provided it with the image of a trader nation. Located at a crossroads of continents, Armenia
was a transit point for international trade and a crucial part of the Silk Road. The country straddles
the major overland ancient trade routes between Europe and Asia and occupied a buffer zone
between competing empires and civilizations in the East and West. Armenia’s commercial
networks are inseparable from its history, as numerous scholars have shown.1 The most mobile
element of Armenian society—the merchants—became the most successful commercial carriers
and agents for various Eurasian civilizations. The existence of large and small Armenian
communities throughout the world fostered communication, exchange, and networking among
Armenian traders.
In this paper I will outline the phenomenon of late medieval Armenian external trade fromrelevant historical, geographical and cultural perspectives, including placing it in the context ofworld trade and the ruling states of the time. As a specialist in the Armenian diaspora who hasstudied the history of Armenian immigrants and communities in Northern Europe (Scandinavia)
and the Far East (Japan and China), I regularly come across information on the activities ofArmenian merchants—the most dynamic segment of Armenian society. The history of the
Armenian Diaspora before the twentieth century is primarily a history of traders. In the history of
the world economy, the Armenian trade—especially in the late Middle Ages—is unique, and offers
numerous interesting details and paradoxes. The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453
seriously impacted trade between East and West. Having lost their direct connections with themarkets of the Near East, European traders sought the assistance of Asian intermediaries. Thus the
sixteenth century saw Armenian traders re-emerge in new geographical and political conditions
that brought fresh perspectives and challenges.
After losing its independence in the fourteenth century, Armenia experienced almost threecenturies of continuous and bloody conflicts among nomadic dynasties. Only after the peace treaty
between Safavid Persia and the Ottoman Empire in 1639 did living conditions in Armenia once
again become somewhat bearable. However, the Ottoman Empire never recognized the rights ofArmenian merchants and would regularly seize their assets. In contrast, the Safavid rulers granted
special rights to Armenian merchants (known as “khas”) that were equal to those enjoyed by
Iranian high officials.
After the treaty between the Persians and Ottomans, the long-distance trade run by Armenians
1Among the best studies on this subject in English, see Henry Edwards, The Armenian Maecenats of New Julfa,
Isfahan (Oxford, 1991); Vahan Baibourtian, International Trade and the Armenian Merchants in the SeventeenthCentury (New Delhi, 2004).

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Artsvi Bakhchinyan

gradually developed and even flourished. By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, theArmenian merchant class of Persia, known as khojayut'yun or khojas (lord and rich in Persian
respectively), had unexpectedly risen to prominence. 2 Several factors contributed to thisdevelopment: the strengthening political and economic relations between the East and West, thegrowth of the European economy and its high demand for Eastern goods, the need for commercial
intermediaries, and the ancient mercantile traditions of the Armenians, well-known for theirresourcefulness and geographical mobility. Trade under Oriental tyranny, in the words ofArmenian historian Leo, “was the one and only field of activity remaining open to him [i.e., to an
Armenian person], which would secure him a measure of prestige, prosperity, and power.”3 For
Europeans, the Christian Armenians, living throughout Asia, were “the most convenient keys to
the East,”4 and well suited to managing East-West political and commercial relations. In thiscontext the personal skills and national characteristics of the Armenian people were important.
Their linguistic knowledge, negotiation skills, and ability to successfully resolve conflicts enabled
them to become cross-cultural intermediaries. The Armenians naturally tended to avoid creatingproblems, and thus Armenian merchants became pivotal agents in the caravan trade between Eastand West, fostering contacts between the two continents.
The high point of these Armenian cross-cultural ties came in the seventeenth century, when
Shah Abbas I (1587–1629) of Persia gave the Armenian merchants of New Julfa (a suburb on theoutskirts of Isfahan) a monopoly over the Persian filoselle (raw silk) export trade. Since ancient
times, as recorded by the fifth century Armenian historiographers, the Armenians produced thisvaluable product and exported it all over the world—including Europe, China, and later even
America. Armenians remained involved in this trade even in the early twentieth century. Shah
Abbas I’s granting of filoselle trade privileges enabled Armenians to dominate the filoselle tradethroughout the seventeenth century, and by mid-century they controlled seventy per cent of the
trade. 5 In addition to silk, the dealings with precious stones also contributed to Armenia’s
flourishing commerce, which enjoyed a golden age that lasted for about 150 years.
Rich merchants of New Julfa received citizenship and the freedom to practice their own
Christianity. This tolerance can be explained by the pragmatic understanding of Iranian rulers of
the importance of external trade. Of course, members of the Armenian trading class in Safavid
Persia suffered religious oppression and persecution, and were always required to pay head-money(kharaj) for practicing their religion. This class was also anxious about a lack of security for thepeople, their property, and their rights. During the reign of Sultan Husein Shah (1684–1722),
amidst conditions of economic and political decline in Iran, the attitude of the Safavid government2

About Armenian khoja class, see Leo, Khojayakan kapital (Capital of Khojas) (Yerevan, 1934); L. G. Minasyan,
Nor Jughayi khojanere (The Khojas of New Julfa) (New Julfa, 2006).
3
Leo, Yerkeri zhoghovatsu (Collection of works), vol. 3 (Yerevan, 1969), p. 150.
4
Raffi, Yerkeri zhoghovatsu tasnerku hatorov (Collection of Works in Twelve volumes), vol. 7 (Yerevan, 1985), p.
235.
5
Zh. Ananyan, “Hay vajarakanut‘yune Rusastanum (17-rd d. verj – 19-rd d. skizb) (Armenian Merchant Class in
Russia (End of the Seventeenth Century – Beginning of the Nineteenth Century),” in V. Barkhudaryan and Z.
Yekavyan, eds., Ejer hay gaght‘avayreri patmut‘yan (Yerevan, 1996), p. 196.

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The Activity of Armenian Merchants in International Trade

toward the Armenian merchants changed. They were forced to pay huge taxes, their property was
no longer secure, and religious persecutions were enforced.
In general, however, before these negative events, the patronage of the Persian court had
increased participation of Armenian merchants throughout the region, including the entire
Levantine trade, and thus helped them establish a powerful international commercial network. The
commercial activity centred on New Julfa expanded overland and maritime networks on an
unprecedentedly large scale crossing Eastern and Western Europe, Russia, the Levant, the Middle
East, Central Asia, India, and the Far East. This geographically extensive commercial presence canbe characterized as a kind of empire of a colonized, stateless nation, professionally administeredand often serving non-commercial purposes. “The Armenian merchants benefited from a far-flung
web of Armenian diaspora communities connected by ties of kinship, religion, and language, bycooperation and mutual support, by relatively easy credit, and by contracts based on trust and good
will. Through their commercial school and published manuals and guidebooks, New Julfa's
Armenians also provided apprentice traders with business training and expertise.”6 That is why
one recent study on Armenian trade characterized the Armenian trading network as an independentso-called “world-economy” with distinctive components that included a big ethnic and politicalcomplex, incorporating various “world-economies” and state units. This “world economy” had its
own geographical centre in New Julfa, the major centre of capital accumulation for the Armenian
diaspora, from where international overland trade was organized and regulated. The network
spanned Surat, Madras, Calcutta, Constantinople, Izmir, Moscow, Krakow, Lwow, Venice,Amsterdam and other centres. The volumes of goods circulated through this network reached into
the millions of tons7. Thus, the Armenian khojas not only became rich themselves but alsoenriched the Persian Shah’s treasury.
Shortly after establishing business contacts with East and West, Armenian merchants alsocame to control the transit trade in Iran. Various Armenian trading dynasties (including the
Velijanians, Shehrimanians, Lazarians, and Safrazians) wielded great influence over international
trade. To resist the penetration of European trading capital into Iran, those professional, bold andintelligent traders unified themselves in big companies; the biggest was the New Julfa Armenian
trading company, established in the mid-seventeenth century, which traded with Russia andWestern Europe using the Caspian Sea and Volga River route. The signing of two majorcommercial contracts with Russia, in 1667 and 1673, furnished the representatives of New Julfa
Armenian trading company with various privileges, which were extended to other Armenian
merchants.
During this 150-year period the Armenian merchants faced different challenges. To increase
the scope of their activities they first had to shift their focus from the caravan (overland) trade tomaritime trade. Although the Armenians were not new to maritime trade (the earliest references to
6

Philip D. Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 179.
Smbat Khanamiri Hovhannisyan, Fransiakan Annalneri patmagitakan dproce yev XVII–XVIII dareri hay
arevtrakan kapitali himnakhndire (French Historical School of Les Annales and the Problem of Armenian Trade
Capital of the Seventeenth – Eighteenth Centuries), Summary of Ph. D. dissertation (Yerevan, 2009), p. 23.
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Artsvi Bakhchinyan

Armenian maritime trade can be traced back to Cilician Armenia, a kingdom on the
Mediterranean), the seventeenth century required them to operate in ocean environments and overlonger distances, something they managed successfully. For our research interests, two majorcommercial routes of the New Julfa Armenian traders are important. The first route was that toEurope, running from Isfahan via Tabriz to Shemakha near the Caspian Sea, sailing across the
Caspian Sea up to the lower reaches of the Volga River at Astrakhan, and following the VolgaRiver to Kostroma, before branching south to Moscow. From Moscow the route continued to theWhite Sea and the city of Arkhangelsk, from there various possible routes through the North Sea
and to the West existed. In the White Sea the goods were generally transferred to Russian or
Swedish vessels and shipped to other European ports, although merchants sometimes took landroutes to Western Europe through present-day Finland and the Scandinavian Peninsula. This
Caspian-Volga route trade route quickly acquired international commercial significance, and wasconsidered “Armenian” by other peoples. 8 With the minor exception of a few Persian and
Caucasus Tatar traders, Armenian merchants dominated the Russian trade route to Europe.9
While the European states were usually friendly to Armenian traders because of the economic
importance of their activity, history also knows instances of social, ethnic and religious
discrimination. The policies of Sweden and the Baltic countries provide an example of a friendly
attitude. In 1687 a commercial contract was signed between Armenian merchants and Sweden,
permitting the former a two-year toll exemption. This contract, highly favourable to the Julfa
traders, also granted Armenian merchants permission to open factories in Stockholm under royalprotection. A hostel-cum-storage depot was built for Armenian merchants in Narva with thesupport of the Swedish Royal Palace. The Armenian merchants paid a two per cent tax on goods
exported to their homeland from Sweden and a one-per cent tax on goods purchased elsewhere inEurope for transport to Persia via Sweden.10 In 1696 Frederick Kazimir, Duke of Kurland, signed
a treaty consisting of twenty two points, which satisfied most of the requests of Persian-Armenian
merchants in various Baltic cities. He taxed all their goods, excluding precious stones, but allowed
them to obtain the provisions necessary to support their activity. The Duke also guaranteed theirsafety from all dangers or violations, under the stipulation that they in turn should behave in a
law-abiding fashion. In the Baltic countries the Armenians enjoyed freedom of religion, the rightto enter into transactions with the local populace, and the right of habitation in Baltic cities. They
were also allowed to establish factories with equal status to those of the local inhabitants, andarticle six of the treaty granted wholesale merchants freedom from all taxes for four years. In
marked contrast, Armenian traders encountered many problems with the French authorities. The
Armenians’ handling of the French-Iranian trade before 1664 prompted the French authorities toattempt to break the Armenian monopoly. For example, in 1622 the city administration of8

Archbishop Avgustin (Nikitin), “Armianskaia khristianskaia obshchina Peterburga (The Armenian Christiancommunity of Petersburg),” Neva, no. 10 (1996), p. 234.
9Vahan Bayburdyan, Hamashkarhayin arevture yev iranahayut‘yune (World Trade and Armenians of Iran)(Tehran, 1996), p. 177.
10
Einar Ekegård, Studier i svensk handelspolitik under den tidigare frihetstiden (Uppsala, 1924), pp. 87-92; Ture J.
Arne, Svenskarna och Österlandet (Stockholm, 1952), pp. 59-60.

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The Activity of Armenian Merchants in International Trade

Marseille issued a special warrant forbidding the captains of French ships from transporting thegoods of Armenian traders.11
The second major trading route was that in Asia, which was mostly used by representatives of
the Armenian communities of India, most of them originally from New Julfa. The Armenian
presence in India was ancient, and they were in the Indian peninsula a long time before theEuropeans arrived there to trade. Initially the European trading companies and colonial authorities
in India and the Far East were uncertain whether to treat the Armenian trading communities ascompetitors or allies. However, eventually the British East India Company and subsequent Britishcolonial authorities found the Armenian trading networks and communities to be worthy allies anduseful for their commercial and colonial penetration of the region. In India, Myanmar, Singapore,Java, certain ports of China, the Philippines and elsewhere in the Far East, the Armenian trading
firms were involved in import-export enterprises handling spices, textiles, daily commodities, andeven opium. In 1688 an eminent Armenian merchant, Khoja P’anos Kalant’ar, acting on behalf ofthe larger Julfan community of merchants, signed an agreement with the English East India
Company in London. The Julfans agreed to transport their silk and other merchandise using
English shipping, and in return were granted a number of privileges including equal rights with theEnglish merchants to transport their goods and themselves across the Indian Ocean, as well as tax
exemption. After signing the 1688 agreement, many Julfan Armenians began to use English andIndian ships in addition to their own. There are about a dozen recorded examples ofArmenian-owned ships sailing the Indian Ocean in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. Naturally such privileges highlighted the commercial ties of Armenians with many ports
in the Far East.12 Many European merchants willing to facilitate their activities in overland tradein Asia even began to wear Armenian-like costumes. For a period the Armenian flag (an image of alamb carrying a cross) was also a guarantee of security in the ports of the Far East.
By the eighteenth century, however, the Armenian trading communities in India and the Far
East were considered enemies of the East India Company. The British started to persecute themand confiscate their ships as enemy property. As elsewhere, foreign hostility towards the
Armenians stemmed from their financial success. In 1783 the British robbed Armenians settling in
the Chinese city of Guangzhou. Although the Chinese authorities offered the Armenians protection,
most left to resettle in Macao and Indochina.13
In the beginning of the nineteenth century, in response to the emerging capitalistic economy
the Armenian merchants of India and the Far East started to band together to form major trading
corporations. In 1850 seven major Armenian trading companies joined to form a single powerfulcorporation in Guangzhou, and this corporation then opened branches throughout the Far East. The
11
V.A. Bayburdyan, “Hayastani azatagrman khndire yev jughahay arevtrakan burjuazian XVI–XVII darerum (The
Issue of Armenia’s Liberation and the Commercial Bourgeoisie in the Sixteenth – Seventeenth Centuries),” in
XVI-XVII dareri hay azatagrakan sharzhumnere yev hay gagh’tavayrere (The Liberation Movements of the
Sixteenth – Seventeenth Centuries and the Armenian Colonies) (Yerevan, 1989), pp. 107-108.
12
Mesrob J. Seth, Armenians and the East India Company (Calcutta, 1926), pp. 5-7.
13
R, Abrahamyan, “Chinastan (China),” in Hay gaghtashharhi patmutyun (mijnadaric minchev 1920 t.) (History of
Armenian Diaspora: From Middle Ages until 1920) (Yerevan, 2003), p. 431.

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Artsvi Bakhchinyan

preeminent company among the Armenian trading houses was the “Seth Apcar” company, whose
ships serviced three continents via routes that linked China and Great Britain. However, in the
1880s when the British began to establish commercial colonies in China, they hindered Armenians
from trading on certain routes, seeking to monopolize the most valuable trade for the British andimpose high taxes upon Armenians.
The Armenian trading empire was damaged following the Afghan invasion of Iran in 1722,
during which New Julfa was ruined and its inhabitants were saddled with a seventy thousand
touman payment to the invaders. Many Armenians immigrated from New Julfa after this event,and the highly successful Armenian Trade Company of New Julfa increasingly moved its activity
elsewhere, establishing branches in several other cities.
The significance of the Armenian trade with various regions of Europe and Asia mirrors thatof the East–West trade in general; the trade stimulated the circulation of Asiatic goods throughout
Europe and the appearance of European goods throughout the East. However, several aspects
distinguished the Armenian merchants from their rivals in international trade. Here we emphasize
the following three unique aspects of the Armenian trade.
1. Creation of new communities. The Armenian network of small trading communities inboth East and West closely resembled other diasporas of Middle Eastern merchant communities,
including the Arabs, Greeks and Jews. But the Armenian traders, unlike their European
counterparts, often sought to settle permanently in the countries of their business activities, andthus brought their families to those places. This is different from the exclusively male communities
of Chinese and Arab traders. Therefore, new Armenian communities came to be established inmany countries and generally were welcomed by local authorities that appreciated theirprofessional abilities.
2. Public Relations component. The commercial contacts between the Armenians and many
countries allowed peoples around the world to become not only economically acquainted with
Armenia, but also culturally and generally acquainted. The international trading activities enabled
Armenians to make them broadly known despite the fact that this small and obscure nation had
lost its sovereignty to invaders. Recognizing the statelessness of the Armenians, some European
researchers labelled the trade “Armenian-Persian.” Moreover, while Armenia was not a politicalactor in the region, for centuries sources labelled its geographical location Armenia. Armenian
merchants not only appeared frequently in travel notes and chronicles of different nations, butwere also frequently portrayed as exotic figures by European artists14 and writers of fiction. The
activity of Armenian merchants attracted the attention of several eminent figures of the epoch, whoappreciated their skills. For example, in his study Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view
German philosopher Immanuel Kant noted the following: “Among another Christian people, the14
Dutch artists in particular produced many paintings with images of Armenian merchants. The mural of the citycommodity exchange in Amsterdam includes representations of Armenian merchants along with traders andmoney-changers (see R. A. Bekius, “The Armenian Community in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth and EighteenthCenturies: Integration and disintegration” Paper presented at the First conference of the Association International
des Etudes arméniennes, Amsterdam, 1983, p. 6).

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The Activity of Armenian Merchants in International Trade

Armenians, a certain commercial spirit of a special kind prevails: they wander on foot from theborders of China all the way to Cape Corso on the coast of Guinea to carry on commerce. This
indicates a separate origin of this reasonable and industrious people who, in a line from North-East
to South-West, they travel through almost whole extent of the ancient continent and know how tosecure a peaceful reception by all the peoples they encounter. And it proves that their character issuperior to the fickle and grovelling character of the modern Greek.”15 Another philosopher,David Hume wrote: “Thus the Jews in Europe, and the Armenians in the East, have a peculiar
character; and the former are as much noted for fraud as the latter for probity.”16
3. Political and cultural objectives. Most importantly, the late medieval Armenian trade did
not limit itself to solely serving economic purposes or the creation of private wealth. Armenian
traders often simultaneously pursued other ambitions and goals, and had an identity other than thatof simple merchants. They formed an educated class with experience of different nations and an
idea of Armenian statehood, developed national self-defence movements, and created a newnational identity. In late medieval times the Armenian merchants were the preeminent carriers ofnational ideas and new values on behalf of Armenia, and attempted to lead the Armenian social
mind into modernity.17 In their negotiations with courts and noblemen of different Asian andEuropean countries, and in their publications, they regularly raised the issue of reconstructing the
Armenian state. Consequently, they sponsored several cultural projects intending to prepare theircompatriots for the re-creation of an independent state. At the end of the sixteenth century the
Armenian merchants were already involved in book printing, aiming to publish books to educate a
new Armenian generation with national values, and prepare them for the re-establishment of the
Armenian state. Unfortunately, for various objective and subjective reasons, these efforts byArmenian traders to rehabilitate the Armenian state did not succeed.
To conclude, we can see that from the middle ages Armenian merchants were a special kindof mobile businessmen, working hard not only economically, but also culturally and politically.
While representing a stateless nation, they enjoyed various privileges, and successfully constructed
a commercial empire that lasted for more than a century. They had originated from a landlocked
nation, yet were actively involved in maritime trade and even struggled against piracy. In the lateMedieval Age—an epoch of difficult communications, international and civil conflicts and wars,
and technological backwardness—the Armenian merchants managed to create a unique and highly
functional commercial network.

15

Immanuel Kant, “Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view,” in Robert B. Louden, ed., Cambridge Texts in
the History of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 222.
16
Quoted by Eric Morton, “Race and Racism in the Works of David Hume,” Journal on African Philosophy(2002).
17
On this subject see Boghos Levon Zekiyan, The Armenian Way to Modernity: Armenian Identity Between
Tradition and Innovation, Specificity and Universality (Venice, 1997).

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