ABSTRACT
During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries merchants of various nationalities continued to trade and travel between the eastern Mediterranean and South and Southwest Asia, using the overland caravan routes. It is intrinsically probable that private business dealings between Altano associates and Iberian officials occurred, for Portuguese of all ranks in Asia were interested in trading through Ormuz and the Gulf when opportunity offered, and indeed even crown merchandise was traded in this way. In 1580 the Portuguese consul at Venice informed Philip II that for the previous ten years it had been unnecessary for the Portuguese to send their own couriers to Ormuz, because the Altanos provided a faster, more efficient, and completely trustworthy service. Meanwhile, in 1605 the crown had decreed the expulsion of all foreigners from the Portuguese dominions, and although this order was not enforced very rigorously in Southwest Asia, it probably contributed to the curtailment of Venetian business through Ormu.
