Armenian silk traders sustained 300 years of commerce without a state
Evidence
One is the emergence in the early seventeenth century of an extensive network of trade operated by Armenian silk merchants who originated from the town of New Julfa in Isfahan, located in the then Persian Empire (in present-day Iran). At its peak, this network stretched from major European cities such as Amsterdam and London all the way to India and as far east as Tibet and the Philippines. The New Julfa Armenian merchants ran a sophisticated trade network operating simultaneously in all the major empires of the time for almost 300 years. Manufacturing and trading a precious commodity like silk, and transporting it through vast distances across various continents and empires, requires a very high degree of trust and cooperation, and the presence of credible mechanisms for punishing transgressors. They accomplished this feat without the benefits of an Armenian state or military-political establishment to support their activities. How did they do it? The Armenian merchant families spread around the world depended on an intricate network for communication and social monitoring that intertwined with the Armenian Apostolic Church. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 199
Categorization
- XREF: Parallel to Milgrom’s law merchants and Champagne Fairs: another pre-state commercial network solving cheating through reputation and credible punishment without a state. — connects to: States operated complex economies for over 2,000 years without coins. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 419
- QUESTION: The network spans almost 300 years — does Norenzayan later specify how the Armenian Apostolic Church actually enforced contracts, e.g. excommunication or ecclesiastical courts?
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 199
Broader Connections
- States operated complex economies for over 2,000 years without coins.
#expands(0.75) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 419