Social capital, 'trust' and the role of networks in Julfan trade: informal and semi-formal institutions at work

Journal of Global History

Volumn 1, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 383-402

  Aslanian, Sebouh ^a  

^a Och Spine at New York Presbyterian Hospitals   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 35349001781     PISSN: 17400228     EISSN: 17400236     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1740022806003056     Document Type: Review

References (80)

1. Paul Seabright, The company of strangers: a natural history of economic life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, p. 48.
2. Avner Greif, Institutions and the path to the modern economy: lessons from medieval trade, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, chapter 10.
3. Francesca Trivellato, 'Sephardic merchants in the early modern Atlantic and beyond: toward a comparative historical approach to business cooperation', in Richard L. Kagan and Philip D. Morgan, eds., Atlantic diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the age of mercantilism, 1500-1800, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, forthcoming.
4. Diego Gambetta, ed., Trust: making and breaking cooperative relations, Oxford: Blackwell, 1988, foreword.
5. Partha Dasgupta, 'Trust as a commodity', in Gambetta, Trust, p. 54.
6. Robert Putnam, 'Tuning in, tuning out: the strange disappearance of social capital in America', PS: Political Science and Politics, 28, 4, 1995, pp. 664-5.
7. Sheilagh Ogilvie, 'The use and abuse of trust: social capital and its development by early modern guilds', Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1, 2005, p. 15.
8. Douglass C. North, 'Institutions, transaction costs and the rise of merchant empires', in James Tracy, ed., The political economy of merchant empires: state power and world trade, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 24;
9. Douglass C. North, Institutions, institutional change and economic performance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, chapter 4.
10. James Coleman, 'Social capital in the creation of human capital', American Journal of Sociology 94 (Supplement), pp. 99ff.
11. Avner Greif, 'Reputation and economic institutions in medieval trade: evidences from the Geniza documents', Journal of Economic History, 49, 1989, pp. 857-82.
12. Ogilvie, 'The use and abuse of trust', p. 17.
13. Coleman, 'Social capital', pp. 108-9. The idea is also developed in Mark S. Granovetter's classic essay, 'The strength of weak ties', in American Journal of Sociology, 78, 6, 1973, pp. 1360-80;
14. and his influential 'Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness', American Journal of Sociology, 91, 3, 1985, pp. 481-510.
15. Jeremy Boissevain, Friends of friends: networks, manipulators and coalitions, Oxford: Blackwell, 1974, pp. 34ff., refers to 'many-stranded relations'.
16. Bruni and Sugden, 'Moral canals: trust and social capital in the work of Hume, Smith and Genovesi', Economics and Philosophy, 16, 2000, pp. 33-4.
17. Shushanik Khachikian, Nor Jughayi Hay vacharakanutiwně ev nra arevtra-tntesakan kaperě russastani het [The Armenian trade of New Julfa and its commercial-economic ties with Russia], Yerevan: Haykakan SSH GA Hratarkchutiun, 1988.
18. Roberto Gulbenkian, 'Philippe de Zagly, marchand arménien de Julfa, et l'établissement du commerce persan en Courland en 1696', in Revue des Études Arméniennes, n.s., 7, 1970, pp. 361-426.
19. Avedis K. Sanjian. The Armenian communities in Syria under Ottoman dominion, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.
20. Boghos Levon Zekiyan, Le colonie Armene del medio evo in Italia e le relazioni culturali Italo-Armene, Venezia-S. Lazzaro, 1978.
21. Edmund Herzig, 'The rise of the Julfa merchants in the late sixteenth century', in Pembroke Papers 4, 1996, pp. 305-22.
22. See also Sebouh Aslanian, 'From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: Circulation and the global trade networks of Armenian merchants from New Julfa, 1605-1747', forthcoming PhD thesis, Columbia University, New York, chapter 3.
23. See Mesrop Vardapet Oughurlian, Patmutiwn hayots kaghtakanoutean yev Shinutean yekeghetsvo notsa i Livorno kaghaki handerts havelvatsovk [History of Armenian colony of Livorno and the construction of their Church there accompanied with Appendices], Venice: Mechitarist Press, 1891,
24. and Italian translation, Alesandro Orengo, Storia della colonia armena di Livorno Presentazione, traduzione e note di Alessandro Orengo, Livorno: Tipografia O. Debatte, 1991.
25. For Marseille, see Charles-Diran Tékéian, Marseille, la Provence et les Arméniens, Marseille: Institut Historique de Provence, 1929;
26. Frederic Macler, 'Notices de manuscrits arméniens ou relatifs aux Arméniens vus dans quelques bibliothèques de la Péninsule Ibérique et du sud-est de la France', in Revue des Études Arméniennes 1, 1920-21, pp. 63-80, 85-116, 237-72, 411-17; 2, 1922, pp. 7-64, 235-91.
27. See Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, 'Armenios en Sevilla' in Archivo Hispalense: Revista Historica, Literaria y Artistica (Sociedad del Archivo Hispalense: Sevilla) 19, 1953, pp. 189-96;
28. Hipolito Sancho de Sopranis, 'Los Armenios en Cádiz' in Seferad: Revista Madrid, 1954, pp. 295-314.
29. See Arakel Sarukhan, Holandan yev Hayere [Holland and the Armenians], Vienna: Mechitarist Press, 1925.
30. Herzig, 'Venice and the Julfan merchants', in Boghos Levon Zekiyan and Aldo Ferrari, eds., Gli Armeni e Venezia: dagli Sceriman a Mechitar, Il momento culminante di una consuetudine milenaria, Venice: Ist. Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed. Arti, 2004, p. 160.
31. Ronald Ferrier, 'The agreement of the East India Company with the Armenian nation, 22nd June 1688', Révue des Études Arméniennes n.s., 7, 1970, p. 439.
32. For the larger context of the treaty and its place in British-Armenian relations in the Indian Ocean, See Sebouh Aslanian, "Trade Diaspora versus Colonial State: Armenian Merchants, The English East India Company and the High Court of Admiralty in London, 1748-1752," Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 13/1, (spring 2004):37-100.
33. Mesrovb Seth, Armenians in India from the earliest times to the present, 1st edn, Calcutta: n.p., 1937.
34. Ferrier, 'The agreement', p. 439.
35. Poladian, 'Brmahayk' [Burmese Armenians], in Sion, Amsagir kronakan, grakan, Banasirakan Jerusalem, July-August, 1959, pp. 169-72;
36. Mikayel Gasparian, 'Brmastani Hay gaghut'e' [The Armenian colony of Burma], in Nor Azdarar, Calcutta, 1, 1, 1950, pp. 15-19.
37. See Levon Khachikian, 'The account ledger of merchant Hovhaness of Julfa', Journal of the Asiatic Society, 8, 3, 1966,
38. H. E. Richardson, 'Armenians in India and Tibet', in Journal of the Tibet Society, 1, 1981, pp. 63-7.
39. Derenik Poladian, 'Chinastani Hay vacharakannerě ev Hovhannes Ghazarean' [The Armenian merchants of China and Hovhanes Ghazarian], in Sion, 11-12, 1959, pp. 276-7.
40. Margaret Sarkissian, 'Armenians in South-East Asia', Crossroads, 3, 2-3, 1987, pp. 15-29;
41. Nadia Wright, Respected citizens: the history of Armenians in Singapore and Malaysia, Victoria: Amassia Publishing, 2003;
42. Serafin Quiason, English country trade with the Philippines, 1644-1765, Quezon City: University of Philippines Press, 1966.
43. 'Introduction' in F. G. Poghosian, ed., Datastanagirk Astrakhani Hayots [The code of laws of the Astrakhan Armenians], Yerevan: Haykakan SSH GA Hratarkchutiun, 1968.
44. See also A. Yukht, 'Astrakhani Haykakan gaghuti bnakchutyan sotsialakan kazmě 18rt dari arachin kesum', [The social composition of the Armenian population of Astrakhan in the first half of the eighteenth century], Haykakan SSR Gitutyunneri Academyayi Teghekagir, 7, 1957, pp. 47-60;
45. and documents and commentary in George A. Bournoutian, tr. and ed., Armenians and Russia, 1626-1796: a documentary record, Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2001.
46. Poghosyan, Datastanagirk Astrakhani Hayots, p. 7.
47. Edmund Herzig, 'Early modern Armenian commercial law', forthcoming in Kéram Kévonian and Sushil Chaudhury, eds., The Armenians in Asian trade in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, Paris, 2006.
48. see Aslanian, 'From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean', chapter 7.
49. See also the excellent treatment in Edmund Herzig, 'The Armenian merchants of New Julfa, Isfahan: a study in premodern trade', PhD thesis, Oxford University, 1991, chapter 3.
50. J-B. Tavernier, Collection of travels through Turkey into Persia and the East Indies giving an account of the present state of those countries . . ., London: printed for MP (Moses Pitt), 1688, p. 159.
51. Greif, Institutions.
52. Jonathan Israel, Diasporas within a diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews and the world of maritime empires 1540-1740, Leiden: Brill, 2002.
53. See Francesca Trivellato, 'Merchants' letters across geographical and social boundaries', in Correspondence and cultural exchange in Europe, 1400-1700, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
54. For Julfan correspondence, see Aslanian, '"The salt in a merchant's letter": the art of business correspondence, courier networks and their role in Julfan economy and society', in Journal of World History, Winter 2007, forthcoming.
55. Avner Greif, 'Contract enforceability and economic institutions in early trade: the Maghribi traders' coalition', American Economic Review, 133, 3, 1992, p. 530.
56. For a transcription, see Sebouh Aslanian, 'Hndkahay vacharakanutyan patmut'iunits (XVIII d. skizb)' [From the history of Indo-Armenian trade (beginning of the XVIII century)], Patma-Banasirakan Handes, 171, 1, 2006, pp. 254-71.
57. Constant Jughayetsi, Vasn norahas mankants yev yeritasardats vacharakanats khrat [Concerning advice to the adolescent and to the young merchants] more commonly known as Ashkharazhoghov [General compendium], Ms. 64 Nerses Shnorhali, Library at All Savior's Cathedral, folio 6.
58. A. K. S. Lambton, 'The office of kalantar under the Safavids and Afshars', in Mélanges d'orientalisme offerts à Henri Massé, Tehran: Publications de l'Université de Téhéran, 1963, pp. 206-7;
59. A. K. S. Lambton, 'Cities, i.-iii. Administration and social organization', in Ehsan Yarshater, ed., Encyclopaedia Iranica, 5, 1992, pp. 611-13;
60. and A. K. S. Lambton, 'Kalantar' in Encyclopedia of Islam (Supplement).
61. Lambton, 'The office of kalantar', p. 206.
62. The English traveller Thomas Herbert refers to Julfa's second kalantar (Khwaja Nazar) as 'the Armenian prince'. See Thomas Herbert, Some yeares travels into Africa & Asia the great . . ., London: printed by R. Everingham, for R. Scot, T. Basset, J. Wright, and R. Chiswell, 1677, p. 167.
63. Adam Olearius, in the mid-seventeenth century, refers to Kalantar Safraz Beg as an 'Armenian Lord', in The voyages and travels of the ambassadors sent by Frederich Duke of Holstein to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia . . ., London: Thomas Dring, 1662, p. 265.
64. Tadhkirat al-muluk: a manual of Safavid administration (circa 1137/1725), Persian text in facsimile BM, Or. 9496) translated and explained by V. Minorsky, London: Luzac and Co., 1943, p. 148.
65. Sh Khachikian, Nor Jughayi hay vacharakanut'yuně, pp. 37-41.
66. See also L Khachikian, 'The account ledger', pp. 176ff.
67. Sh. Khachikian, Nor Jughayi hay vacharakanutyun'e, chapter 1.
68. Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Shah's silk for Europe's silver, Atlanta: Scholars Press, pp. 93-101. McCabe mainly differs from Khachikian in stating that the Assembly of Merchants was a kind of board of directors for the Julfan 'Trading Company', but provides no evidence.
69. Herzig, 'Early modern Armenian commercial law'.
70. See Cornelius Le Bruyn, Travels into Muscovy, Persia and part of the East Indies . . . Translated from the original French), vol. 1, London: Printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch [et al.], 1738, p. 215.
71. Khachikian, 'The account ledger', p. 176.
72. Khachikian, Nor Jughayi hay vacharakanutyun'e, p. 52.
73. and Mesrop Gregorian, Nor Niuter yev ditoghutyunner hratarakich Vanantetsvoh masin [New materials and observations on the Vanantetsi family of publishers], Vienna: Mekhitarist Press, 1966, pp. 48-9.
74. Francis Joseph Steingass, A comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words and phrases to be met with in Persian literature, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1892, p. 1187.
75. Khachikian, Nor Jughayi Hay vacharakanutyun'e, p. 177.
76. See also Herzig, 'The commercial law', and Baghdiantz McCabe, Shah's silk, p. 233.
77. Francesca Trivellato, 'Juifs de Livourne, Italiens de Lisbonne, Hindous de Goa. Réseaux marchands et échanges interculturels à l'époque moderne', Annales: Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations, May-June 2003, pp. 581-603;
78. Trivellato, 'Sephardic merchants'.
79. A hundi stored in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia is translated and reproduced in facsimile as document 2 in Herzig, 'The Armenian merchants of New Julfa', pp. 293-8.
80. Lisa Bernstein, 'Opting out of the legal system: extralegal contractual relations in the diamond industry', Journal of Legal Studies, 21, 1, 1992, pp. 115-57.