Ports, Partnerships and Profits: India’s Maritime Trade with Iran in the Nineteenth Century

The period between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed trade and commerce through the overland and overseas routes. The ports in the western Indian Ocean had trading linkages with the ports in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The Mughals and Safavids (who ruled Iran between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries) took proactive measures to promote trade and commerce in these regions. The rise of Surat on India’s western coast was synonymous with the emergence of ports such as Hormuz, Bandar Abbas and Basra. The arrival of European commercial enterprises in the Indian Ocean changed the established trade structure. The seventeenth century saw the emergence of Surat as one of the most important ports of the Mughal Empire, mainly because of its connectivity to the rich hinterland. It was also the terminal point of some essential overland routes towards the north-western part of India. The emergence of Surat was complemented by the arrival of merchant communities from different parts of the world. This led to deep trading linkages with ports such as Basra, Hormuz and Bandar Abbas. But during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the decline of Surat paved the way for Bombay on the western coast of India. Similarly, the decline of Bandar Abbas was succeeded by the rise of the port of Bushire in the Persian Gulf.