Give a brief account of the prominent trading communities of the medieval period.

The growth of trade and business transaction gave rise to host of commercial activities and persons associated with it. Merchants and merchant communities were central to all these activities. Apart from buying and selling commodities they also acted as moneylenders, financiers, moneychangers, brokers, bankers, commercial agents etc. Most of the time the big merchants performed many of these functions simultaneously. While a few restricted themselves to their specialized area only, the specialization of this sort emerged gradually towards the later medieval period only. The transactions at the local level were directly in the hands of producers. Thus, monks, fishermen, peasants and landlords acted as ‘part-time merchant’. However, as trade grew in volume, it came under the control of enterprising merchants.

1) Armenians

The observation of the Court of Directors of the English East India Company in 1699 about the Armenians that ‘most certainly they are the most ancient merchants of the world’ was perhaps no exaggeration. Indeed, from the earliest times to the end of the pre-modern era, the Armenian merchant communities engaged themselves in international and inter-continental trade in the Eurasian continuum. They ventured out of the homeland (Armenia) to different parts of Asia and Europe, and settled themselves not only in important cities, ports and trade marts but also in remote production centres far away from their own country. And thus they created the infrastructure for an efficient and successful long-distance trade and a commercial network with strong link with their _______ ______ ___ _______ ___ ____ __________ _________ ____ ________ _________ _________.
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