alternatehistory.com

Anbu Ran Mulin was an Indian merchant who lived in the city of Astrakhan, Russia, in the early 18th century. He was head of one of the largest Indian trading companies there -- Indians held great influence in the southeastern Russian economy prior to the British takeover of the subcontinent -- and in all likelihood one of the richest, if not the richest, man in Astrakhan.

In 1723, he petitioned Peter the Great to allow his company to trade not just in Astrakhan, but in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the city of Arkhangelsk on the Arctic Ocean, and to allow his company to expand its enterprises and access the markets of countries adjacent to Russia, such as Poland, Germany, and China.

This petition was rejected, and then the collapse of the Mughal and Safavid empires dealt a death blow to the Indian economic dominance of Central Asia and the lower Volga.

What if Peter had accepted?
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