IRAN AND THE WORLD IN THE SAFAVID AGE
Abstracts  

Khachikyan, Dr. Shushanik L., Matenadaran, Yerevan, Sarhad's Account-book as a Source for Studying the Commercial Activities of New Julfan Merchants in the Eighteenth Century

The Armenian merchants of New Julfa played an important role in the international trade of the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. They controlled a large proportion of the foreign trade of Iran and developed commercial activities worldwide by trading with numerous nations of the East (India, Indonesia, Tibet, China and other countries of South-East Asia) and the West (Russia, France, Holland, England, Italy, Spain etc.).  Among numerous documents, such as contracts, wills, letters, customs-records etc., a special role belongs to the record-books of the merchants, which are a valuable source for studying various aspects of their activities.  The subject of the paper is the account-book of Shahveli's son Sarhad of the Bandorian family. The ledger records the transactions of this New Julfan family within a seven-year period (1711-1718).

The ledger provides rich information on the goods imported and exported, their quantities and prices, transportation costs, customs duties, units of weight, credit deals, as well as on the cost of food, clothing, house-rent in Iran, Russia and Holland. According to this document, Sarhad, together with his father and brother, started business with a capital of 900 tumans (328.5 kg of silver), taken on credit from wealthy khojas, who were to receive 75% of the profits.

During the period covered by the ledger, Sarhad exported from Iran to Russia and further to Amsterdam 132 bales of raw silk weighing about 16 tons to a total value of 2500 tumans (910 kg of silver).  Besides raw silk, the main item of Iranian export, Sarhad imported to Russia and Europe incense, coffee, tobacco, spices, wool, carpets, precious stones etc.  Among the goods exported from Russia were furs, leather, honey, wax, grain, whereas from Europe to Russia and Iran woolen fabric, calico, laces, women's garments, jewellery, porcelain, silver cutlery, clocks cosmetics and other manufactured goods were imported.

During the aforementioned period Sarhad had contact with hundreds of merchants, manufacturers, functionaries and political figures, among them the founder and commander of the 'Armenian squadron' formed in 1722, Petros di Sargis Gilanents, as well as a relative of Peter the Great, Cyrill Narishkin, and the Russian Fieldmarshal Vasily Dolgorukov.

The analysis of Sarhad's records has made it possible to establish, that the sale price of the silk in Amsterdam exceeded its purchase price by 44%, while the profit did not amount to 18%; the expenditure rate from Astrakhan to Archangel, as well as from Archangel to Amsterdam might fluctuate up to 22-26%; the freight charge for shipment across the Caspian Sea from Shamakhi to the wharf of Nizovaya was about 1.5% of the purchase price of the silk.  The Shamakhi litre was equivalent to 7.7 kg and that of Gilan to 4.5 kg.

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