000			01706cam a2200217 i 4500
001			18526676
010			_a 2015306085
020			_a9780670087303
020			_a0670087300
082	0	4	_a381.0954 _bLEV/C
100	1		_aLevi, Scott Cameron
245	1	0	_aCaravans: Indian merchants on the Silk Road
260			_aIndia _bAllen Lane-Penguin _c2015
300			_alvii, 197 p. _bill. (black and white), maps (black and white) ;
490	1		_aThe story of Indian business
520			_aCaravans tells the fascinating story of tens of thousands of intrepid Multani and Shikarpuri merchants who risked everything to travel great distances and spend years of their lives pursuing their fortunes in foreign lands. From the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, these merchants lived as 'guests' in cities and villages across Afghanistan, Central Asia, Iran and Russia. Setting aside beliefs that caravan traders were simple peddlers, Scott C. Levi examines the sophisticated techniques these merchants used to convert a modest amount of merchandise into vast portfolios of trade and moneylending ventures. Caravans also challenges the notion that the rising tide of European trade in the Indian Ocean usurped the overland 'Silk Road' trade and pushed Central Asia into economic isolation. In fact, as Levi shows, it was at precisely the same historical moment that thousands of Multanis began making their way to Central Asia, linking the early modern Indian and Central Asian economies closer together than ever before.
650		0	_aSiraiki (South Asian people)
650		0	_aBusiness travel
650		0	_aMerchants, Foreign _aIndia _aCentral Asia _aCentral Asian literature _aCommerce
942			_cBK
999			_c62122 _d62122