xiii. INDO-IRANIAN COMMERCIAL RELATIONS Since antiquity
merchants have used both caravan and maritime routes to
transport commodities between India and Persia. During the early
modern era, as European companies became an important presence
in the arena of Indian Ocean trade, an increased percentage of
the total trade between the regions was conducted via the Indian
ports of Surat, Thatta, and Lahori Bandar and the Persian ports
of Hormuz, Bandar-e ʿAbbās (Gombroon), and, from the beginning
of the 19th century, Bušehr (qq.v.). During this period,
however, the caravan trade, largely directed through Kandahar,
still maintained an important role in Indo-Persian commercial
relations. This suggests that the relationship between these
modes of transport may be more accurately characterized as
complementary than as competitive. In 1615, the Englishmen
Richard Steel and John Crowther noted that the war over Hormuz
between the Safavids and the Portuguese had driven that portion
of India’s trade with Persia which had pr