I am reading Jean Chardin's work on his travels to Persia, and he mentions that the king and vizier are excited that a prominent Armenian merchant converted to Islam, and began pressuring the Armenians in Esfahan to convert as well.
They argued that they should remain Christians, as this would allow them to continue to do business in the lands of the Christian princes of Europe, a trade by which Persia presumably benefited.
I was a bit surprised that 17th century Armenian merchants would have such strong connections to European markets.
So, in what geographic region did Armenian merchants operate?
If you're actually interested in the topic, Professor Sebouh Aslanian wrote a book on the Armenian merchants of New Julfa. Here's a lecture about the topic. They reached as far north as Archangel in Russia, as far West as Cadiz, London, and Amsterdam, as far east as China, Singapore, Phillipines, and even Acapulco, Mexico, and everywhere in between.
In the interest of 'tooting my own horn' I actually wrote a longish answer on the Julfan merchant firms here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1ubau7/friday_freeforall_january_03_2014/cegwthd
It mostly discusses the organization of the firms rather than the travel involved(although it does mention one notable object that traveled along these networks). Feel free to ask any followup questions!