'… this book represents a contribution of whose parameters and paradigm any future study of Safavid Iran which purports to offer a comprehensive analysis of the period will have to take account.' Journal of Semitic Studies

• Preface; Acknowledgements; Notes on transliteration; List of abbreviations; Maps; Introduction; 1. The Iranian silk trade: from the Silk Road to the Safavids; 2. Procedures, logistics, finances; 3. Shah 'Abbas I and the Safavid political economy: territorial expansion, anti-Ottoman diplomacy, and the politics of silk; 4. Government control and growing competition: the silk export monopoly and the advent of the European maritime companies; 5. The complications of privatization: from the abolition of the silk export monopoly to the peace of Zuhab, 1629–1639; 6. Conflict and reorientation: silk to silver, 1640–1667; 7. Renewed regulation and the rise of the Russian connection, 1660s–1690s; 8. Contraction and continuity, 1690–1730; Conclusion; Appendix; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

'… this book represents a contribution of whose parameters and paradigm any future study of Safavid Iran which purports to offer a comprehensive analysis of the period will have to take account.' Journal of Semitic Studies

• Preface; Acknowledgements; Notes on transliteration; List of abbreviations; Maps; Introduction; 1. The Iranian silk trade: from the Silk Road to the Safavids; 2. Procedures, logistics, finances; 3. Shah 'Abbas I and the Safavid political economy: territorial expansion, anti-Ottoman diplomacy, and the politics of silk; 4. Government control and growing competition: the silk export monopoly and the advent of the European maritime companies; 5. The complications of privatization: from the abolition of the silk export monopoly to the peace of Zuhab, 1629–1639; 6. Conflict and reorientation: silk to silver, 1640–1667; 7. Renewed regulation and the rise of the Russian connection, 1660s–1690s; 8. Contraction and continuity, 1690–1730; Conclusion; Appendix; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.

'… this book represents a contribution of whose parameters and paradigm any future study of Safavid Iran which purports to offer a comprehensive analysis of the period will have to take account.' Journal of Semitic Studies

• Preface; Acknowledgements; Notes on transliteration; List of abbreviations; Maps; Introduction; 1. The Iranian silk trade: from the Silk Road to the Safavids; 2. Procedures, logistics, finances; 3. Shah 'Abbas I and the Safavid political economy: territorial expansion, anti-Ottoman diplomacy, and the politics of silk; 4. Government control and growing competition: the silk export monopoly and the advent of the European maritime companies; 5. The complications of privatization: from the abolition of the silk export monopoly to the peace of Zuhab, 1629–1639; 6. Conflict and reorientation: silk to silver, 1640–1667; 7. Renewed regulation and the rise of the Russian connection, 1660s–1690s; 8. Contraction and continuity, 1690–1730; Conclusion; Appendix; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.