Though Shah Abbas, the founder of the Safavid Empire, was known for his military exploits, he was determined to improve his country’s export trade. Under his patronage, Abbas built the small cottage business of carpet weaving into a national industry. In the capital city of Isfahan alone, factories employed more than 25,000 weavers, who produced woolen carpets, brocades, and damasks of brilliant color, design, and quality. Armenians, a people-group from southwest Asia who had previously controlled the carpet industry, were brought to Isfahan to protect them from Turkish attacks. Furthermore, the production and sale of silk was made a monopoly of the crown.  

Many consider the reign of Abbas as a golden age of Persian art. Not unlike modern leaders, Shah Abbas understood the power of a single message and was keen to imprint a visual style on his empire. He employed calligraphers, painters, bookbinders, and illuminators to produce manuscripts and design inscriptions and paintings for buildings.

The Mughal period witnessed the growth of a thriving capitalist commercial economy on the Indian subcontinent. Although most people were involved in agriculture, from which most imperial revenue was derived, a manufacturing industry supported by a money economy and mercantile capitalism expanded.

Block-printed cotton cloth, produced by artisans working at home, was the chief export. Through an Islamic business device called the sillim, contracts invoking prompt payment in return for a future delivery, banker-brokers supplied the material for production and money that the artisans can live on while they worked; the cloth brokers specified the quality, quantity, and design of the finished product. This “putting out” system was later replicated by the English prior to the Industrial Revolution. In and around the cities of Surat, Ahmedabad, Pattan, Baroda, and Broach, varieties of cloth were produced and shipped to Gujarat. Within India, the demand for cotton cloth, as well as food crops, was so great that Emperor Akbar launched a wide-scale road-building campaign. From Gujurat, Indian merchant brokers shipped their cloth worldwide.