CHAPTER 3
INDO-ARMENIAN ECONOMIC RELATIONS

        Economic relations between Armenia and India have existed since ancient times. From time immemorial India has been trading with the West. Part of the caravan routes between the East and the West was passing through Armenia, and thus Armenia was the link between India and the West.
        Indo-Armenian relations began to acquire more definite character in the end of the 4th century B.C. when Alexander the Great conquered the East. That time not only Iran but also Central Asia and India joined the world trade. As a consequence of such growing trade flows, Armenia became one of the centres of transit trade, and it linked the Western countries with India and China. The transit trade with Chinese silk was conducted through Armenia.
        In ancient Armenia the main trade points were the cities of Armavir,  Yervandashat, Tigranakert where thousands of merchants of Armenian and other nationalities, including Indians were interacting to conduct trade operations.
The long distance, division of India into various kingdoms and principalities and the subsequent loss of sovereignty of the Armenian state to Iran and Turkey could not lead to the establishment of a political relationship between Armenia and India. However, there were mainly contacts of an economic nature.
        For many centuries Armenia has been the focal point of transit trade. One could find there goods from various countries, particularly from India. Strabo states that the inhabitants of South Russia carried on caravan trade and transported on camels Indian and Babylonian goods, which they acquired from Armenians and Midians.  Their trade was so prosperous that their clothes were fully decorated with golden jewellery.
        During the 4th-5th centuries the Armenians had already reached India and China. Indo-Armenian economic relations became more vital in the context of the tensed political relations between the West and the East. Neutral Armenia was considered to be a comfortable market. Major cities of Armenia like Artashat, later Dvin have been the junction points of trade of the West with India over the centuries. In the 7th century five major trade routes were coming out of Dvin. According to the Darius agreement signed between Khosro I, King of Persia and Justinianus, Emperor of Byzantine, Dvin was recognized as the place of barter between the East and the West. Greek historian of the 6th century Prokopius Caesarian mentions Dvin as a big trade centre and says that there had been crowded settlements which were engaged in trade with merchants coming from India and Iberia. Both Armenian and Indian merchants had been participating in that brisk trade. There is an evidence that the famous Chinese traveller Hwen Thsiang met Armenian merchants in North India in 620 and traded with them.
        The chief items of Indian export to Armenia were precious stones, numerous kinds of spices, medicinal herbs and substances, which were often mentioned in the Medieval medicinal manuscripts. The blue from Lahore was very famous in Armenia which was called ‘indicon’. The Armenians exported mainly coloured leather and various dyes to India. Maroon and red dyes (which they got from special red worms) and excellent cotton from Armenia were very popular in India.
        Greek sources of the 7th century B.C. mention the high quality of iron produced in Armenia.  Other sources suggest that from the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C. to the Medieval Ages, Armenian iron had been exported to the Arabian Peninsula, Persia and India. This also proves that Indo-Armenian ties have a very old history.
        During the 6th-7th centuries Armenia attached such a great importance to India that in the Geography⁶⁹  of Anania Shirakatsi  India was among the first mentioned countries. Shirakatsi gives detailed description of India. He describes the rich nature of India, its people, different tribes, their habits. He also lists the goods which are available in Indian markets, such as gold, silver, copper, tin, pearl, precious stones, pepper. In the end Shirakatsi describes various types of diamonds and their prices. These information, given by Shirakatsi is not only valuable for the history of Indo-Armenian relations, but also gives an idea about the role played by India in ancient times in trade of the East.
        There are interesting materials on Indo-Armenia relations in the Armenian manuscripts which are preserved in Matenadaran – National Institute of Ancient Manuscripts of Armenia in Yerevan. One of them is an Armenian guidebook of 12th century, titled Names of Indian and Persian Cities. The name of the author is not known. But it can be assumed from the book that it is written by an Armenian merchant who knew India very well and has been there personally. He starts his description with the North of India - from Lahore, Kashmir – and concludes with the southern part of India, Ceylon. The author dwells upon the cities which were situated on this route, the people, their customs and habits. He describes in detail the economic life of these cities, their trade cooperation as well as the types goods available there. This interesting guidebook once more proves the magnitude of interest of the Armenians towards India in the Middle Ages.
        Hetoum, King of Cilician  Armenia who was  a historian as well, wrote about India. In his History book a whole chapter is dedicated to India. He describes the location of India, both overland and sea routes to India, the customs of inhabitants, the neighbouring countries.
        As is known, King Hetoum has never visited India. Therefore, it can be assumed that he used the Armenian manuscripts of the Royal Library as well as the descriptions of Cilician Armenians who visited India, as the sources of his writing. Cilician Armenian merchants imported gold, precious stones and medicinal substances from India to Cilicia.
         the Middle Ages in Caesaria the Armenians and Indians did trade deals jointly and in the markets they displayed their goods jointly.⁷⁰  Later in the 17th-18th centuries, they performed their trade jointly in Russia, particularly in Astrakhan.⁷¹
        In southern Russia and Poland it was so customary to see the Armenians in the role of traders of the eastern commerce that the entire series of oriental goods were known as ‘Armenian goods’. Polish queens often sent Armenian merchants to the East to bring specific luxury products for them.⁷²
        Many Indian traders were seen in the 17th century in Ispahan. Adam Olearius, a member of an embassy from the Duke of Holstein, was struck by the wealth of Ispahan and international character of its trade when he visited the city in 1637. In his book The Voyages and Travels (London, 1662) he wrote:
“There is not any nation in all Asia, nor indeed almost of Europe, who sends not its merchants to Isfahan… There are ordinarily 12,000 Indians in the city… Besides these Indians there is at Isfahan great number of Turks, Jews, Armenians, Georgians, English, Dutch, French, Italians and Spaniards.”⁷³
        The Armenians were thoroughly familiar with all the corners of India long before the Europeans appeared on the subcontinent. They had preceded the British in being the principal exporters from India. They carried on extensive trade in Indian goods with nearly all the major countries of Europe and Asia.
By the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century English merchants were purchasing some of their major wares (silk, spices, rugs, etc.) from the Armenian merchants of Constantinople, who had brought them from India and Persia via the overland route.⁷⁴
        There are a lot of documents on the Indo-Armenian trade relations in the depository and archive of the Armenian monastery named Amenaperkich in New Julfa (Ispahan, Iran). During a few hundred years thousands of letters and documents, related to different issues of Indo-Armenian colonies, were sent from India to this archive. There was a tradition to send here diaries and correspondence, documents on business operations as well as wills of Iranian and Indian Armenians. This monastery performed the role of a keeper of hundreds of documents, agreements of Armenian merchants and artisans who were working in the foreign countries. The main portion of Armenian manuscripts written in India and in neighboring countries were kept there, too.
Among the documents of the Monastery Archive, the Manual for Trade Schools by Kostand Joughayetsi,⁷⁵  a great Armenian scholar of the 17th century, deserves special attention. This Manual is almost fully dedicated to India. According to Joughayetsi, in the following cities of India the Armenians were conducting their trade deals and they had colonies there: Multan, Lahore, Akbarabad, Kashmir, Hyderabad, Shahazadpur, Surat, Cochin, Shahjahanabad, Patna, etc.
        The author informs about the prices of hundreds of goods, brings more than 20 tables on the price and weight of precious stones and their correlation with different currencies being in circulation that time in India. The Manual of Kostand Joughayetsi is considered to be the most valuable source for studying economic and trade life of India during the 17th-18th centuries.
        In the 17th century a trade school for the children of merchant Armenians was founded in New Julfa. The students studied there economic geography, trade, measures and currencies of different countries. Special attention was devoted to India. Kostand Joughayetsi, who was an expert in economic and trade life of India, was teaching in this school.  It is interesting to mention that Indian languages were also taught here.
        For the first time Haroutyoun Ter-Hovnanyan, a scholar of the 19th century, paid attention to this Manual. In his History of New Julfa (written in 1880), he brings some quotes from the Manual.⁷⁶
        The History of New Julfa is not particularly about India and Indo-Armenian relations. But as the Armenian settlements of India were founded mostly by the Armenians of Iran and New Julfa, the author in detail dwells upon his countrymen, living in India, brings many valuable archive documents on economic and political life of India related to the activities of the Armenians there. Armenians of Iran were closely related to India. Young men from almost every family would leave for work in India to send money to their parents in New Julfa.⁷⁷
        In the 17th century Armenian merchants of New Julfa situated themselves both on the major arteries of overland trade as well as of maritime trade, thus involving themselves in Indo-Persian, Indo-Ottoman, Central Asian-Ottoman, Perso-European, and Perso-Russian trade. Thus they turned out as competitors of the Levant Company, the Muscovy Company and the East India Company. The monopoly of the silk trade became the major source of wealth for New Julfans of this period. After the Afghan occupation of Iran, many Armenians, including wealthy and influential merchants, migrated to Georgia, Russia, Europe and South Asia. In the 18th century the Shahs of Iran restored the Armenian trade activities. The former favoured and employed Armenians and issued specific decrees enabling Armenian-Iranian merchants to revive trade with India. They continued to play a crucial part in Iranian trade with India, Russia and Europe, where dried fruit, leather and carpets were exported.
        Enjoying the kind attitude of Indian people and local authorities, the Armenians performed large-scale activities in the spheres of trade and artisanship in India. Armenians kept in their hands the trade with Egypt, Russia, Livorno, Venice and other European countries and cities. They were using Arabian and European ships to transport their goods.
        Rev. James Long in his A Peep into the Social Life of Calcutta During the Second Half of the 18th Century, writes:
“The Armenians came to India some by the Persian Gulf, others by Khorasan, Kandahar and Kabul to Delhi. They were among the earliest settlers, coming gradually from Guzerat and Surat to Benaras and Behar. They settled in Chinsurah soon after the Dutch settlement of 1625. On the congression of Calcutta, 1690, the Armenians in common with the Portuguese, accepted the invitation of the Governor, Charnock, to settle there, and flourished, so that in 1757 they received as compensation, for their losses seven lacs of rupees… They were pioneers in Central Asian trade, which has yet a great future before it.”⁷⁸
        From the early 17th century the Armenian merchants were trading not only with India but also with the Far East, continuing their way to Burma, Siam, islands of Indian Ocean – Java, Sumatra, Philippine Archipelago, especially the city of Manila. The Armenian merchants were also conducting trade in China where many difficulties and obstacles were created for foreigners. But the Armenians were so ordinary and well known visitors here that the Jesuit missionaries used to wear Armenian clothes in order to be able to have free entrance, to travel safely and undisturbed and conduct their missionary work in this country.⁷⁹
        Indo-Armenian relations became more close when the Armenians established permanent settlements in India. Armenian merchants were seen in all the corners of India. They were very famous. Father Monserrate reports that even Moghul Emperor Akbar “was deceived by the common but erroneous supposition that all of the Christians of Asia are Armenians”.
        As we have already mentioned, on the invitation of Emperor Akbar many Armenians settled in Agra. For 300 years, up to the middle of the 19th century there was a flourishing Armenian community in Agra.
        Armenian merchants had their own Caravan Serai at Agra, which was very famous among other merchants, traders, and travelers as well. They knew that they could get all the necessary information there. Father Manrique in his Travels wrote in 1640:
“After entering the city [Agra], I made my way to the Caramossora [Caravan Serai] of the Armenians in order to obtain information there about a rich merchant to whom I had been directed to apply...”
        The Armeno-Indian trade relations continued also in the subsequent centuries. They strengthened and acquired a new quality.
Archive documents, manuscripts, tombstone inscriptions prove that during the 16th-18th centuries Armenian settlements existed in Agra, Gwalior, Arkat, Bangalore, Delhi, Lahore, Kabul, Surat, Bombay, Chinsurah, Chandernagore, Saidabad, Monghyr, Calcutta, Lucknow, Dhaka, Madras, Hughli, Chittagong, Pondicherry, Cochin, Hyderabad, Kandahar.
        For their brisk activities the Armenian merchants occupied an important position in the trade in India, so much so that they were regarded as the main masters of the trade, though at the same time a few European nations were acting on the territory of India who owned a large number of serious companies.
Armenians in India were considered as a separate group of merchants having their own routes of export, separate markets and trade branches. The situation of Armenian and European traders was not even comparable. Europeans had their big companies and were backed by troops and artillery guns while the Armenians continued acting in old and time-worn system. They did business alone. Sometimes they set up companies with only their brothers or relatives working with them as a rule. The merchants were divided into sizeable merchants and petty traders. The formers lent money to petty merchants, who traded and gave money-lenders 6-12 percent interest.
        Armenian small firms –‘companies’ – with their Asian, and even ancient trade methods were far from powerful European companies. But owing to the bright knowledge of their job and their acquaintance with all the corners of India, the Armenian merchants could organize their activities in a methodical way. In a short period they acquired high profits, and emerged as the serious competitors for the European companies.
        Being unable to assemble together and establish a large company with considerable amount of money, the Armenians had to depend on European companies for their transportation to export goods, as well as  to preserve those in the ports and stores. These and other circumstances, which were coming from their conservative and traditional mentality, forced them to join one of the European nations. And the Armenians chose the British. The British understood the Armenians’ capabilities for trade in India as well as in Asia, and reckoned their force. The British initially did not move against this force. They adopted the policy of compromise and agreement to win over the Armenians.
        When the British came to Surat in the early 17th century, Armenians were already living there and were conducting their trade successfully. They were using Arab vessels to carry their goods through the Persian and Arabian Gulfs to Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Venice. Among the Armenians of Surat there were also diamond, jewelry merchants. History gives us also the name of an Armenian lady merchant, Hripsimeh Eleazar Leebruggen, who inherited a lot of wealth and conducted her own business. Her name has been remembered with respect as she left the residue of her large estate to the Armenian Churches in Madras and Calcutta, to the Armenian Philanthropic Academy (now Armenian College of Calcutta) and Madras Armenian Orphans’ Fund.⁸⁰
        In 1665 the Armenians obtained a Firman from the Emperor Aurangzeb which entitled them to form a settlement in Bengal, at Saidabad. There the Armenian merchants traded mainly in raw silk and piece-goods.

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