On the Commercial Activities of an 18Th Century New Julfa Merchant Sarhad Bandurean in Amsterdam

Abstract

The merchants of Armenia, owing to its geographical position, from ancient times played an important role in East-West trade. This role especially grew in the 1 7thI 8th centuries, after the deportation of most of population of Eastern to Iran by Shah Abbas 1. By his order the inhabitants of Yerevan, Old Julfa, Agoulis, Dasht and other commercial centers were settled near the Safavid capital Isfahan, where a new town called New Julfa emerged in the early 17th century. The New Julfa merchants expanded their commercial activities and controlled most of silk export from Iran to Europe, as well as held key positions in the export of oriental goods to Europe and the import of European goods to the Eastern countries. In the commercial activities of the New Julfa merchants in Northern Europe of special importance was the trade witlh Holland, in particular Amsterdam, where they established a colony in the mid17th century. The Armenians lived in the eastern part of Amsterdam, had their own market, known as Oriental market, as well as commercial ships. The Armenian colony of Amsterdam was noted not only for commercial activities, but for cultural life, as well. To mention is, for example, the printing house, where the first Armenian map (ADxarhac'oyc') and for the first time Movses Khorenatsi's History of Armenia were printed. Among numerous documents, such as contracts, wills, letters, customs-records etc., a valuable source for studying various aspects of the commercial activities of the New Julfa merchants are their account-books which contain rich information on the goods exported and imported, their quantities and prices, transportation fare, customs duties, units of weight, routes and transport, etc. So far only two account-books have been published, those by Hovhannes Jughayetsi TerDavt'ean, who traded in South-Eastern Asia' and by Sarhad Bandurean, son of Shahveli, who traded in the West, mostly in Holland.2 This paper deals with the transactions of the Bandurean family in Holland during the years 1711-1718.3 According to this document, Sarhad, together witlh his father Shahveli and brother Khojamal, started business with a capital of 900 toumans which was equivalent to 328.5 kg of silver. This sum was given them on credit by the wealthy New Julfa khojas (merchants) Mourad and Hakobjan5 Ohan's sons, and Hovhannes, Margar's son, on the condition that the latter would receive 75% of the profits. The rest was to be shared among Shahveli and his sons in the following ratio: 16.6% would go to Shahveli, 6.8% to his elder son Sarhad, Khojamal would receive 1.6%. In the course of the years covered by the ledger, the Bandureans had contacts with around 200 persons, Armenians and foreigners. As follows from the account-book, Sarhad, passing through Shamakhi, one of the most important sericultural regions in the Caucasus, got aboard a ship at the pier of Nizovaya (Nizovoy in the account-book) on the Caspian sea on August 2, 1712. It should be noted that one of the main routes from Iran to Europe was the Russian, or the Volga route, which began at Astrakhan and ended at Arkhangelsk. This route became especially active aft;er 1 71 1, when Peter the Great approved the privileg,es given to the Armenian tradesmen in 1667 and 1673 pursuant to the agreements between the Russian administration and prominent kho]as, representatives of the self-governing bodies of New Julfa.' Thus, Sarhad set out in August 1712 and passing through Saratov (a town on thle Volga river) and Lomovka (a town in Penza region), reached Moscow in the same year. He continlued