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From Bazaar to Market: Foreign Trade and Economic Development in Nineteenth-Century Iran

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Guity Nashat
Guity Nashat*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago Circle
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Extract

During the nineteenth century, the bazaar remained the center of commercial activity in Iran. However, the traditional structure of Iranian economy and society began to be deeply affected by Iran's increasing involvement in the international market, so that by the end of the century there had been nearly a twelvefold increase in the volume of Iran's foreign trade. This was accompanied by a rise in the general level of prosperity in the country, and an almost doubling of its population. The groups most directly affected by these developments were the merchants and craftsmen and it was the emergence of a small capitalist class which wanted a share in the political process that greatly contributed to the rise and success of the constitutional movement. The impact of the demands of the international market on crafts and guilds damaged some of the textile industry but stimulated the rise of new crafts, such as those associated with the production and processing of opium and carpets.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Winter 1981 , pp. 53 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1981

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References

Notes

1. Issawi, C. (ed.), The Economic History of Iran 1800-1914 (Chicago, 1971), p. 132.Google Scholar

2. Curzon, George N., Persia and the Persian Question (London, 1892), II, pp. 491-494.Google Scholar Also see below pp. 10-12 for detailed discussion.

3. For examples of this Islamic theory of state, see Khawajeh Nizam al-Mulk's Siyast-nameh, Khawajeh Nasir al-Din Tusi's Akhlaq-i Nasiri, and Jalal al-Din Davvani's Akhlaq-i Jalali.

4. Cited in Issawi, Economic History, p. 25.

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9. Issawi, Economic History, pp. 339-42.

10. The development of Qajar bureaucracy has not been adequately studied. However, several works offer partial accounts, among them are the following: Mustowfi, Abdullah, Sharh-i Zindigani-yi Man Ya Tarikh-i Ijtimaᶜi va Idari-yi Dowreh-yi Qajarrjyeh (Tehran, n.d.)Google Scholar, I, II, and III; Meredith, C., “Early Qajar Administration: An Analysis of Its Development and Functions,” Iranian Studies, IV (Spring-Summer 1971), 59-84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sheikholislami, R. A., “The Patrimonial Structure of Iranian Bureaucracy in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Iranian Studies, XI (1978), 199-259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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14. “Report on Persia on Persia A and P, 1867,” cited in Issawi, Economic History, pp. 364-66.

15. P. W. Avery and J. B. Simmons, “Persia on a Cross of Silver, 1880-1890,” Middle Eastern Studies (1973), 259-285; Rabino, Joseph, “Banking in Persia,” The Journal of Institute of Banking, XIII (January 1892), 32.Google Scholar

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18. Perry, John R., Karim Khan Zand: A History of Iran, 1747-1779 (Chicago, 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, particularly chapters 14 and 15, pp. 223-272.

19. Malcolm, History, II, p. 519.

20. Perry, Karim Khan, p. 227.

21. Curzon, Persia, I, p. 520; and Malcolm, History, II, p. 519.

22. Kinneir, J. M., A Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire (London, 1813), p. 44Google Scholar, and Malcolm, History, II, p. 520.

23. Perry, Karim Khan, pp. 237-238.

24. Ibid., p. 257.

25. Ibid., p. 227.

26. Perry, Karim Khan, p. 229.

27. Ibid., p. 252, 260-270.

28. John Malcolm, “Melville Papers,” cited in Issawi, Economic History, pp. 264-267.

29. Glamann, K., Dutch-Asiatic Trade, 1620-1740 (The Hague, 1958), pp. 117-20.Google Scholar

30. Malcolm, “Melville Papers.”

31. Ibid.

32. Malcolm, History, II, p. 86. According to his estimate, the wealth brought back by Nadir from India was anywhere between 30-70 million pounds sterling. Undoubtedly, the army also brought back a considerable fortune in specie.

33. Issawi, Economic History, p. 132.

34. Campbell to East India Company, 10 August 1831, FO 60/32.

35. Curzon, Persia, II, p. 564.

36. Curzon, Persia, I, p. 466.

37. Hasan, M. S., al-Tatawwur al-Iqtisadi fi al-ᶜIraq (Beirut, n.d.), p. 55.Google Scholar

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39. Ibid., p. 249.

40. Entner, M., Russo-Persian Commercial Relations, 1828-1914 (Gainsville, 1965), p. 64.Google Scholar

41. Ibid., p. 42.

42. Issawi, Economic History, p. 14.

43. Malcolm, Persia, II, p. 519; and Kinneir, Geographical Memoir, p. 44.

44. Houtum-Schindler, A., “Persia,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (London, 1902), VII, p. 617.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., p. 617.

46. Issawi, Economic History, p. 71.

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48. Kinnier, Geographical Memoir, p. 15.

49. Issawi, Economic History, p. 116.

50. Curzon, Persia, I, p. 521.

51. Curzon, Persia, II, p. 43.

52. See Issawi, Economic History, p. 267; W. M. Floor, “The Guilds in Qajar Persia,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Leiden, 1971, pp. 3 and 18; and N. A. Kuznetsova, “Materialy K. Kharkteristike remeslennogo proisvodstva v iranskom gorode XVIII-nachala XIX veka,” cited in Issawi, Economic History, pp. 285-292. I owe the reference to W. M. Floor's work to Professor Vahid Nowshirvani of Tehran University.

53. Chardin, Voyages, III, pp. 97-98.

54. Malcolm, “Melville Papers.”

55. H. W. Maclean, “Report on the Conditions and Prospects of British Trade in Persia,” A and P (1904-05), pp. 95, 2-5.

56. Issawi, Economic History, p. 132.

57. Polak, J., Persien: Das Land und Seine Behwhner (Leipzig, 1865), II, pp. 171-72.Google Scholar

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59. al-Isfahani, Nisf-i Jahan, p. 125.

60. Issawi, Economic History, pp. 298-99.

61. Curzon, Persia, I, p. 167; II, pp. 242, 245.

62. Mirza Husain, Jughrafiya, p. 104.

63. Ibid., pp. 94, 95.

64. al-Isfahani, Nisf-i Jahan, p. 124.

65. Ibid., p. 124.

66. Issawi, Economic History, p. 136.

67. Floor, “The Guilds,” pp. 29-37; and W. M. Floor, “The Guilds in Iran - An Overview from the Earliest Beginnings till 1972,” in Zeitschrift der Deutchen Morgen Ländischen Gesellschaft, Band 125- Heft 1, 1975, pp. 99-100.

68. Inalcik, H., “Capital Formation in the Ottoman Empire,” in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, XII (2) (1969), 105.Google Scholar

69. Chardin, Voyages, III, p. 98.

70. Minorsky, V. (ed.), Tadkirat al-Muluk (London, 1923), pp. 80-81.Google Scholar

71. Malcolm, History, II, pp. 456-57.

72. Ibid.

73. The sellers of fresh fruits and vegetables, butchers, and bakers were usually situated in the various town quarters.

74. Issawi, Economic History, p. 289.

75. For guild membership, see Thompson to Derbey, Tehran, June 18, 1873, FO 60/337; for guild taxes, see McDonald to Gresham, Tehran, September 21, 1894, US Department of State, p. 483.

76. Fasa'i, H., Farsnameh-yi Nasiri (Tehran, n.d.), I, p. 343.Google Scholar

77. Jali, A. (tr.), Khatirat-i Kulunil Kasakuvski (Tehran, 1355/1976), pp. 53-60.Google Scholar

78. Issawi, Economic History, p. 25.

79. Ibid., p. 43.

80. Ibid.

81. This is an estimate derived from two figures supplied by Jamalzadeh, 119.

82. Kasravi, Ahmad, Tarikh-i Mashruteh-yi Iran (Tehran, 1344/1965), pp. 170-179.Google Scholar

83. Sharabi, H. B., Government and Politics of the Middle East in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 1962), p. 75.Google Scholar

84. Entner, Russo-Persian, pp. 1-6; Curzon, Persia, II, pp. 589-92.

85. Fraser, Narrative, p. 172.

86. Willock to Canning, Sultanieh, 7 July 1824, FO 60/24.

87. Fasa'i, Farsnameh, II, p. 131.

88. Issawi, Economic History, p. 109.

90. “Tabriz,” A and P (1873), Vol. 67, 364.

91. Dickson to Thompson, 14 February 1860, FO 60/253.

92. Issawi, Economic History, pp. 114-18.

93. Iran did not have a telegraph system until the 1860s.

94. Fasa'i, Farsnameh, II, p. 45.

95. Stevens to Sheil, Tabriz, 26 February 1851, FO 60/166.

96. The Mahdavi Archive contains many such documents. I am grateful to Professor Asghar Mahdavi for allowing me access to his unique family archive.

97. Jamaizadeh, Ganj-i Shayigan, pp. 94-96.

98. Abbot to Aberdeen, Tehran, September 30, 1840, FO 60/107.

99. Kasravi, Tarikh, pp. 17-18 and 86.

100. For detailed study of the ulama in the 19th century, see Algar, H., Religion and State in Iran, 1785-1906: The Role of the ᶜUlama in the Qajar Period (Berkeley, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Keddie, Nikki R., Religion and Rebellion in Iran (London, 1966).Google Scholar

101. Kasravi, Tarikh, p. 112.