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IRAN
AND THE WORLD IN THE SAFAVID AGE
Abstracts
Matthee, Dr. Rudolph,
University of Delaware, Department of History, Metuchen, The Safavid Economy as Part of the World Economy
Alternatively overrated
in its output and global importance, and belittled as being
insignificant compared to that of neighbouring India or the
Ottoman Empire, the Safavid economy remains an elusive concept.
This
paper examines the scope and significance of the Safavid economy,
or at least its commercial sector, by placing it in the context of
the world economy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first part of the paper argues that Iran's contribution
to worldwide economic activities was relatively slight. It further contends and seeks to demonstrate that, despite
the advent of the European maritime companies and the attendant
highly visible trade connection that developed between Iran and
Europe in the seventeenth century, the volume and frequency of
trade with the Indian subcontinent continued to exceed commerce
with the West by far.
The
second part examines and compares the many lines that connected
Safavid Iran to regions throughout the eastern hemisphere, from
Japan and the East Indies to India, from Central Asia to Russia
and Scandinavia via the Volga route, and from the Arabian
peninsula to Anatolia and Western Europe via the Mediterranean as
well as the Cape route. An
attempt will be made to assess the relative importance of these
links and how they were affected by economic and political change.
It will be seen that, in terms of economic output Iran,
with it its small population and limited resources, indeed was a
distant second to the more populous parts of south and west Asia.
Yet within these parameters, and precisely given the fact
that the country was home to less than 10 million people, Iran
still made an important contribution to global economic activity,
aside from playing a pivotal part as a crossroads of numerous
commodities. A major
part of this contribution consisted of the role the country played
in overland and maritime transit trade.
The country also produced and exported substantial amounts
of raw silk and furnished the Indian subcontinent with a
considerable volume of gold and silver specie.
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