Anti-Ottoman politics and transit rights : The seventeenth-century trade in silk between Safavid Iran and Muscovy

Rudi Matthee, Anti-Ottoman politics and transit rights : the seventeenth-century trade in silk between Safavid Iran and Muscovy. Trade relations between Russia and Iran go back to pre-Islamic times. They remained intermittent, however, until the rise of Muscovy, its annexation of the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan in the mid-sixteenth century, and the consolidation of Safavid rule in Iran in the same period. The backdrop to their subsequent expansion was a shared Russo-Iranian interest in anti-Ottoman alliances, which led to intensified diplomatic relations following the termination of the Livonian War and the accession of Shah 'Abbas I to the Safavid throne in the 1580's. The Russo-Iranian diplomatic exchange never produced an anti-Ottoman agreement, but did contribute to enhanced commercial traffic and the gradual formalisation of trade relations, both in the form of managed royal trade and of private commerce. Among the wares transported to Russia was silk, Iran's main export commodity. The importance of silk lay in Shah 'Abbas 's search for alternative export channels to the Anatolian route to the Levantine ports in order to lessen his dependence on the Ottomans. Russia was one such alternative outlet, yet, due to political differences over the Caucasus and logistical problems, the possibility of a diversion of Iran's silk to the northern route was never fully explored. With Shah ' Abbas 's death in 1629, Safavid interest in managed trade decreased. The Safavid-Ottoman peace of 1639, moreover, obviated any Iranian interest in Russia as an anti- Ottoman partner. Official contacts leveled off as a result. Trade relations continued, however, with private merchants taking the lead. Indeed, the latter part of the seventeenth century witnessed a great increase in the flow of silk from Iran to Russia. Interested in the fiscal advantages and increasingly in need of raw material for their manufacturing industry, the Russians encouraged the trade by giving the Armenians, its mast active practitioners, a privileged status. The latter capitalized on this, yet never intended to shift their entire operation away from the Anatolian route. The Russian hope of a total redirection was thus never fulfilled and the flow of silk, though increasing, at no point reached the volume of the Levantine connection.