At the turn of the eighteenth century a ourishing Indian trading community existed in Astrakhan, the city at the mouth of Volga where the river falls into the Caspian Sea. Indian traders there specialized in importing Indian goods. ey also brought Eastern goods from Persia and Central Asia into Russia. ey exported to Persia Russian marchandise and also western European commodities bought from Russian and European merchants. However, Russians protested against what they called ‘excessive prots’ earned by Indians. e Russian government eventually asked all the Eastern traders (excluding the Armenians) not to take up retail business and to conne their operations within the city of Astrakhan. When the eighteenth century dawned, the Indian trading community in Russia was concentrated in the city of Astrakhan.1