East India Companie's Business Methods and Its Effects on Commercial Trades in Persian Gulf (In Safavid Period)

Safavid Islamic dynasty is one of the most important eras in history of Iran. For some reasons they enjoyed an excellent situation; development of international commercial relations and trades with European east India companies is one the main reasons. In this era (11th century A.H or 17th A.D) Persian Gulf played an important role in commercial trades between Iran and European countries. Also powerful European countries like England, Netherland and France had trade offices in Persian Gulf harbors, in order to monopolize trades in the East. The main problem of those companies was shortage of liquidity or money for foreign investment. As they were eagerly interested in business with east India companies, they had to find a solution for their problem. Also their representatives managed their business according to the needs of European market and their own demands. Therefore, they intended to conduct their business in spices, textile, metal ware, medicine and food with east India companies. Therefore, they competitively used regular shipping lanes between Iran and Indian harbors for transportation of passengers and Iranian and Indian merchant’s goods. The main question of this paper is: What are the effects of east India companies’ business methods in Persian Gulf in Safavid era? Also the hypothesis declared here is: east India companies’ business methods had clear impact on developing and thriving trade harbors in Persian Gulf in Safavid era.