The East India Company in Persia : Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Eighteenth Century

Map 1 Land and maritime trade routes around the Indian Ocean. ## Map 2 The Iranian Plateau and its environs. arms when first starting my PhD journey and have been stuck with me since. Fuchsia Hart and Lindsey Allen (KCL) have given generously of their time in helping to find references, particularly when lockdowns and travel restrictions made this difficult. Rowena Abdul-Razak and Khodadad Rezakhani gave me great opportunities to speak about my research on the platforms that they have created from scratch to support and showcase researchers like myself since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have now attended three Symposia Iranica conferences and various chapters of this book have been presented at these conferences. The feedback I have received whether from professors or PhD students has broadened my mind and improved this manuscript hugely; long may this community persist, even though I'm too old to present now. This book would not exist were it not for the team at I.B. Tauris, Joanna Godfrey (now at Yale), Yasmin Garcha, Rory Gormley and Olivia Dellow. Naturally, any remaining errors are solely my own. Academia can be a lonely business, a precarious and peripatetic existence, so I am forever grateful to my friends and colleagues who have ensured that I am never lonely for too long. In no particular order then: Natasha Morris, the team at Medieval and Early Modern Orients, the MA class at the In 1747, the city of Kerman in Persia burned amidst chaos, destruction and death perpetrated by the city's own overlord, Nader Shah. After the violent overthrow of the Safavid dynasty in 1722 and subsequent foreign invasions from all sides, Persia had been in constant turmoil. One well-appointed house that belonged to the East India Company had been saved from destruction by the ingenuity of a Company servant, Danvers Graves, and his knowledge of the Company's privileges in Persia. This book explores the lived experience of the Company and its trade in Persia and how it interacted with power structures and the local environment in a time of great upheaval in Persian history. Using East India Company records and other sources, it charts the role of the Navy and commercial fleet in the Gulf, trade agreements, and the experience of Company staff, British and non-British living in and navigating conditions in 18th-century Persia. By examining the social, commercial and diplomatic history of this relationship, this book creates a new paradigm for the study of Early Modern interactions in the Indian Ocean. "In 1747, the city of Kerman in Persia burned amidst chaos, destruction and death perpetrated by the city's own overlord, Nader Shah. After the violent overthrow of the Safavid dynasty in 1722 and subsequent foreign invasions from all sides, Persia had been in constant turmoil. One well-appointed house that belonged to the East India Company had been saved from destruction by the ingenuity of a Company servant, Danvers Graves, and his knowledge of the Company's privileges in Persia. This book will explore the lived experience of the Company and its trade in Persia and how it interacted with power structures and the local environment in a time of great upheaval in Persian history. By examining the social, commercial and diplomatic history of this relationship, this monograph creates a new paradigm for the study of Early Modern interactions in the Indian Ocean."-- Provided by publisher Contents Acknowledgements Author’s Notes Prologue Introduction: Historiographical Essay 1 Life in the Company’s Persian factory 2 Governance, information management, reporting, communication and control 3 Trade’s increase: The Company’s commerce in Persia 4 A navy for hire 5 Brokers, Khwajas and country Christians Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index