An Aegean Merchant in a Caspian Empire: Ioannis Varvakis and Russian Diplomacy in Iran in the 1780s

• In Event: The Individual and the Empire: The Fate of Subjects in the 18th-Century Russian Empire (The Problem of Source Analysis)

Abstract

This paper examines the intermediary role of individual merchants in Russian projects of trade and empire building in the Caspian Sea during the 1780s. It examines the commercial and diplomatic activities of Ioannis Varvakis (Ivan Varvatsii), a Greek-born merchant who entered Russian naval service in the war of the 1770s. He later became a caviar magnate and financial supporter of Greek independence. This paper will examine the dependence of Russian officers and consuls on merchant intermediaries like Varvakis, whose linguistic skills and trading connections allowed them to act as interpreters, informers, and organizers of efforts to build a trading factory near Astrarabad in 1781 and 1782. Using the correspondence of the consul in Anzali and the commanders of the Caspian Flotilla, the paper argues that Varvakis embodies a trend among the Caspian merchants, who leveraged knowledge and expertise for concrete economic gains, including exemptions from tax and export restrictions, fishery concessions, and appointments in the customs office. The Russian imperial presence in the Caspian relied on the alignment of the economic motives of these actors, operating in the liminal spaces between Russia, Iran, and khanates of Central Asia with the goals of officials in Astrakhan, Anzali, and St. Petersburg in the era of Catherine II.

Author

• Kevin Gledhill, Sacred Heart U