Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:37:53.739Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The East India Company’s Farmān, 1622‒1747

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Peter Good*
Affiliation:
John Rylands Research Institute, University of Manchester

Abstract

The East India Company’s presence and ongoing trade in Persia was reliant on the privileges outlined in the Farmān, granted after the capture of Hormuz in 1622. The relationship between these two powers was cemented in the rights enshrined in the Farmān, which was used by both to regulate their varying needs and expectations over the course of 125 years. This article explores the Company’s records of the Farmān and how changes to its terms were viewed from both sides. As a Persian document, the Farmān gives a clear view of the attitudes of native officials and rulers to the Company and how these terms were used as a means of control.

Type
Primary Sources, Archival Notes
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This paper has come about through the research conducted for the author's PhD thesis, which was generously funded through the AHRC and hosted by the British Library and University of Essex. The author wishes to give particular thanks to Dr. Mark Frost, Dr. Margaret Makepeace, and Dr. William Pettigrew for their support in the preparation of this article.

References

Bombay Proceedings (IOR/P/341/2, 3, 5 7a, 7b)Google Scholar
Harley Collection: MSS. 109 Persian Farman.Google Scholar
Alam, Muzaffar, and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay.Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries 1400‒1800.Cambridge, 2007.Google Scholar
Amin, A. British Interest in the Persian Gulf.Leiden: Brill, 1967.Google Scholar
Aslanian, Sebouh. From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa.Oakland: University of California Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aslanian, Sebouh. From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa.Oakland: University of California Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Aslanian, Sebouh.Trade Diaspora vs. Colonial State: Armenian Merchants, the English East India Company and the High Court.” Transnational Studies 13, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 37–100. doi: 10.1353/dsp.2006.0002Google Scholar
Avery, Peter, Hambly, Gavin, and Melville, Charles, eds. Cambridge History of Iran in 7 vols. Vol. 7.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axworthy, Michael.Nader Shah and Persian Naval Expansion in the Persian Gulf, 1700‒1747.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 21 (2011): 31–9.Google Scholar
Axworthy, Michael. The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant.London: I. B. Tauris, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baladouni, Vahé, and Makepeace, Margaret.Armenian Merchants of the Seventeenth Century and Early Eighteenth Centuries: English East India Sources. American Philosophical Society Philadelphia, 1998.Google Scholar
Barendse, Rene. The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World in the Seventeenth Century.New York: Routledge, 2002.Google Scholar
Bill, James A.The Plasticity of Informal Politics: The Case of Iran.” Middle East Journal 27, no. 2 (Spring 1973): 131–51.Google Scholar
Brancaforte, Elio.The Italian Connection: Pietro Della Valle’s Account of the Fall of Hormuz (1622),” in Revisiting Hormuz: Portuguese Interactions in the Persian Gulf Region in the Early Modern Period, ed. Couto, Fernandes and Loureiro, Miranda.Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, K. N. The East India Company.London: Routledge, 1999.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, K. N.The Emergence of International Business, 1200‒1800.” Vol. 4, The English East India Company. 7 vols. New York: Routledge, 1965.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, K. N. The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660‒1760.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, K. N. Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaudhury, Sushil. “ Companies and Rulers: Bengal in the Eighteenth Century.” Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 31, no. 1 (1988): 74–109.Google Scholar
Chaudhury, Sushil, and Kevonian, Keram, eds. Armenians in Asian Trade in the Early Modern Era.Lisbon, 2008.Google Scholar
Clulow, Adam.European Maritime Violence and Territorial States in Early Modern Asia 1600‒1650.” Itinerario 33, no. 3 (2009): 72–94. doi: 10.1017/S0165115300016260CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clulow, Adam. The Company and the Shogun.New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Couto, Fernandes, and Loureiro, Miranda, eds. Revisiting Hormuz: Portuguese Interactions in the Persian Gulf Region in the Early Modern Period.Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008.Google Scholar
Dale, Stephen. Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1600‒1750.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dale, Stephen. The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Emerson, John.Rahdars and their Tolls in Safavid and Afsharid Iran.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 30, no. 3 (1987): 318–27. doi: 10.1163/156852087X00161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, Emily. Between Monopoly and Free Trade: The East India Company 1600‒1757.Princeton, 2014.Google Scholar
Ferrier, R. W.The Armenians and the East India Company in Persia in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries.” The Economic History Review 26, no. 1 (1973). doi: 10.2307/2594758CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrier, R. W.The East India Company in Persia in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries.” The Economic History Review 26, no. 1 (1973). doi: 10.2307/2594758CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrier, R. W.The Terms and Conditions under which English Trade was Transacted with Safavid Persia .Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 49, no. 1 (1986). doi: 10.1017/S0041977X00042488CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrier, R. W.The Iranian Navy in the Gulf during the 18th Century.” Iranian Studies 20, no. 1 (1987).Google Scholar
Ferrier, R. W. The Persian Gulf: A Political and Economic History of Five Port Cities, 1500‒1700.Wiesbaden: Mage, 2006.Google Scholar
Ferrier, R. W. The Revolt of Sheikh Ahmad Madani in Laristan and the Garmsirat.Studia Iranica, 1983.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem. The Economy of Safavid Persia.Wiesbaden: Mage, 2000.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem, and Clawson, Patrick. “Safavid Iran’s Search for Silver and Gold.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 32, no. 3 (August 2000): 345–68. doi: 10.1017/S0020743800021139CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foran, John.The Long Fall of the Safavid Dynasty: Moving Beyond the Standard Views.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 24, no. 2 (May 1992): 281–304. doi: 10.1017/S0020743800021577CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foran, John.The Making of an External Arena: Iran’s Place in the World System, 1500‒1722.” Review (Fernand Braudel Centre ) 12, no. 1 (Winter 1989): 71–119.Google Scholar
Foster, William. The English Factories in India, 1618‒1621(‒1669): A Calendar of Documents in the India Office, British Museum and Public Record Office.Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906‒27.Google Scholar
Fragner, Bert.Farmān.” Enclyclopaedia Iranica 9, no. 3 (1999): 282−95.Google Scholar
Furber, Holden.Asia and the West as Partners Before ‘Empire’ and After.” The Journal of Asian Studies 2, no.4 (August 1969): 711–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Good, Peter.The East India Company and the Foundation of Persian Naval Power in the Gulf under Nader Shah, 1734‒47.” In The Dutch and English East India Companies: Diplomacy, Trade and Violence in Early Modern Asia.Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018.Google Scholar
Haneda, Masashi, ed. Asian Port Cities, 1600‒1800.Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Haneda, Masashi.Bandar Abbas and Nagasaki: An Analysis of the Reaction of the Safavid Government to Europeans from a Comparative Perspective.” Annals of Japan Association for Middle East Studies 20, no. 2 special issue II: Ports, Merchants and Cross-cultural Contacts (2005): 119–30.Google Scholar
Hasan, Farhat, “Conflict and Cooperation in Anglo-Mughal Trade Relations during the Reign of Aurangzeb.” Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 34, no. 4 (1991): 351–60. doi: 10.2307/3632456CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hejeebu, Santhi.Contract Enforcement in the English East India Company.” The Journal of Economic History 65, no. 2 (June 2005). doi: 10.1017/S0022050705000173CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herzig, Edmund. The Armenian Merchants of New Julfa, Isfahan.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Herzig, Edmund.The Volume of Iranian Raw Silk Exports in the Safavid Period.” Iranian Studies 25, no. 1/2 (1992): 61–79. doi: 10.1080/00210869208701769CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herzig, Edmund, and Floor, Willem, eds. Iran and the World in the Safavid Age. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.Google Scholar
Inalcik, Halil, ed. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire.2 vols.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Islam, Riazul. Indo-Persian Relations: A Study of the Political and Diplomatic Relations between the Mughal Empire and Iran.Tehran, 1970.Google Scholar
Karim, A.Murshid Quli Khan’s Relations with the English East India Company from 1700‒1707.” Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 4, no. 3 (December 1961): 264–88.Google Scholar
Keddie, Nikki, and Matthee, Rudi, eds. Iran and the Surrounding World.Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Lockhart, Laurence, ed. The Cambridge History of Iran.7 vols.Vol. 6‒7.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Lockhart, Laurence. The Fall of the Safavīd Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Lockhart, Laurence.The Navy of Nadir Shah.” The Proceedings of the Iran Society, 1936.Google Scholar
Marcinkowski, Ismail.The Iranian‒Siamese Connection: An Iranian Community in the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya.” Iranian Studies 35, no. 1/3 (Winter‒Summer, 2002): 23–46. doi: 10.1080/00210860208702010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthee, Rudi.Between Aloofness and Fascination: Safavid Views of the West.” Iranian Studies 31, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 219–46. doi: 10.1080/00210869808701906CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthee, Rudi.From Rhubarb to Rubies: European Travels to Safavid Iran (1550‒1700).” Harvard Library Bulletin 23, nos. 1‒2 (Spring‒Summer 2012): 10–25.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. Persia in Crisis.London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. The East India Trade in Kerman Wool, 1658‒1730.Paris: Etudes Safavide, 1993.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. The Politics of Trade in Safavid: Silk for Silver 1600‒1730.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi.The Safavids under Western Eyes: Seventeenth Century European Travellers to Iran.” Journal of Early Modern History 13 (2009): 137–71. doi: 10.1163/138537809X12498721974624CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthee, Rudi.Was Safavid Iran an Empire?Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 53 (2010): 233–65. doi: 10.1163/002249910X12573963244449CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogborn.Indian Ink.Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press 2007.Google Scholar
Parker, Geoffrey. Global Interaction in the Early Modern Age, 1400‒1800.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Savory, Roger. Iran under the Safavids.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Steensgaard, Niels. Carracks, Caravans and Companies. The Structural Crisis in the European‒Asian Trade in the Early 17th Century.Studentlitteratur Lund, 1973Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Courtly Encounters.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Exploration in Connected History: Mughals and Franks.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Improvising Empire: Portuguese Trade and Settlement in the Bay of Bengal.Delhi, 1990.Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay.Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation.” The Journal of Asian Studies 51, no. 2 (May 1992): 340–63. doi: 10.2307/2058032CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Merchant Networks in the Early Modern World.Abingdon: Routledge, 1996.Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Merchants, Markets and the State in Early Modern India.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. The Political Economy of Commerce.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. The Portuguese Empire in Asia: A Political and Economic History, 1500‒1700.Chichester: Wiley, 2012.Google Scholar
Troebst, Steffan, “Sweden, Russia and the Safavid Empire.” In Iran and the World in the Safavid Age, 253–9.I. B. Tauris, London 2012.Google Scholar
Van Gelder, Maartje.Cross-Confessional Diplomacy and Diplomatic Intermediaries in the Early Modern Mediterranean.” Journal of Early Modern History 19 (2015): 93–105. doi: 10.1163/15700658-12342452CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Meersbergen, Guido. Diplomacy in a Provincial Setting: The East India Companies in Seventeenth-Century Bengal and Orissa.Forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Dennis. The English Amongst the Persians.London: I. B. Tauris, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar