Silk Road Trade in the Safavid Period

Timeline

1. 1610Tabriz · East Azerbaijan ProvinceTabriz, as a commercial center linking the Ottoman Empire, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, gathered caravans from Anatolia and the Caspian. Goods were transshipped to Isfahan and then distributed to southern Persian ports or continued eastward; the court set up checkpoints there to collect tariffs and supervise the silk trade.
2. 1612–1620Silk-producing regions of Gilan and Mazandaran · Gilan ProvinceThe Abbasid court strengthened control over the sericulture regions along the northern Caspian coast, requiring raw silk to be purchased through official channels before export, cracking down on smuggling and standardizing prices, thereby maximizing state revenue from the silk trade while ensuring a stable supply to European merchants.
3. 1616–1620Bandar Abbas · Hormozgan ProvinceAfter the British trading post was established in 1616, some silk was shipped by sea from Bandar Abbas to India and Europe, with overland Silk Road and maritime trade running in parallel. Dutch and Portuguese merchants also joined the competition, and the Safavids collected tariffs and trade profits on multiple routes, driving the expansion of the early 17th-century global trade network.