Petrus Di Uscan's Will and Julfan Networks of Circulation between Isfahan and Madras during the Eighteenth Century

Scholars of Indian Ocean history have rarely delved into the mental universe of the early modern Indian Ocean merchant mostly because of the absence of autobiographical sources written by merchants themselves. This paper will examine an autobiographical source that provides rare insight into the mental horizons of a prominent Indian Ocean merchant from the mid-eighteenth century. Through a close reading of a remarkable 200 page will written in 1749 by a Julfan merchant named Petrus di Uscan in Madras, the paper will explore how networks of circulation, social mechanisms, and a shared cultural ethos helped Julfan Armenian merchants in the Indian Ocean in general and Madras in particular prosper in early modern long distance trade. The paper will also shed light on the diasporic networks that connected merchants from their network center in the Isfahan suburb of New Julfa in Iran with the British outpost of Madras in India.