all the trade routes from the Mediterranean or the Black Sea were forced through or near Armenia in order to pass south of the Caspian Sea. From Armenia the traders could either follow the Silk Route to China or take a more southerly path to the Indo-Ganges plains of northern India (Curtin 1984: 183). Secondly, the turbulent history of Armenia has meant that there have probably always been migrations, forced or otherwise, of Armenians from their homeland.

Although individual Armenian merchants had roamed as far afield as India and the East Indies prior to the seventeenth century, it was not until the early 1600 fs that large numbers of Armenian traders had regular access to the east-west sea trade. In 1605 Shah Abbas of Persia, faced with an Ottoman advance into eastern Armenia, razed the area, which included the city of Julfa, to the ground. In the process he uprooted thousands of Armenians. With the aim of stimulating trade within his dominions, Shah Abbas resettled many of the urban Armenians from Julfa close to the royal capital at Ispahan and granted them a monopoly of