In India, by comparison, the English were not strictly limited to trade in Agra, and they traded regularly with numerous Indian merchants throughout northern India where markets in Ahmadābād, Broach, Baroda, Surat, and Agra were opened to them. In Safavīd Persia, the structure of export trade was significantly different, and the English had to travel to Isfahan for all commercial transactions. On one hand it may have simplified the process of commercial exchange, but it also meant that the English were forced to purchase silk directly from the Shah of Iran in Isfahan