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Trends in the Development of Prices in Late Qajar Iran, 1870–1906

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Gad G. Gilbar
Gad G. Gilbar*
Affiliation:
University of Haifa
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Extract

Monetary developments in Iran during the nineteenth century have remained, by and large, unexplored. The reason for this is all too familiar to economic historians: lack of sufficient data on prices. The Iranian central government during Qajar rule did not initiate a systematic collection of quantitative data on prices in the major urban centers and unofficial Iranian sources make only occasional reference to this issue. A recent check, however, of British and French consular reports dealing with commerce and trade during the last 30 years of the nineteenth century has shown that they contain data on prices to the extent that a description of major monetary trends is possible for the period which preceded the constitutional revolution, i.e., 1870-1906.

British and French consuls reported to their respective foreign offices on current prices of basic commodities that prevailed at their places of service and residence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 3-4: Studies on the Economic and Social History of Iran in the Nineteenth Century , Summer-Autumn 1983 , pp. 177 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1983

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Footnotes

My sincere gratitude goes to Professor Ann K. S. Lambton for her generous help and advice with this study.

References

Notes

1. The only attempt to describe quantitatively the development of prices in nineteenth-century Iran has been made by Charles Issawi. See The Economic History of Iran, 1800-1914 (Chicago and London, 1971), pp. 340–342.Google Scholar

2. An examination of Iranian archival sources may shed additional light on the subject.

3. The figures in the sources are given in a variety of currencies and weights. These have been converted into qirans per one kg. For commodities such as milk and eggs other units of measurement have been used.

4. For data and description of the great-famine years see, Gilbar, Gad G., “Demographic Developments in Late Qajar Persia, 1870-1906,” Asian and African Studies 11 (1976/77), pp. 134Google Scholar n. 21, 143-144.

5. Houtum-Schindler, EB 11, pp. 196-197.

6. Kennion, “Khorassan,” 1905-06, 3724, p. 18.

7. Cf. Kennion, “Seistan,” 1906-07, 3970, p. 17.

8. A brand of tea which is prepared from Chinese plants cultivated in India. It yields a comparatively weak tea.

9. Minas S. P. Aganoor, “Report on the Trade of Ispahan and Yezd for the Year 1905-6…,” FO, DCR, AS 3748 (1907), pp. 3-4.

10. Bombay Gazette (Bombay), 12 March 1898.

11. Malcolm J. Meade, “Report on the Trade and Commerce of the Persian Gulf for the Year 1899…,” FO, DCR AS 2442 (1900), p. 3.

12. See, for example, Churchill, “Resht,” 1897, 2128, p. 11; Lorini, p. 394, Table 17; Houtum-Schindler, EB 10, p. 617.

13. See further Gilbar, Gad G., “The Big Merchants (tujjār) and the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906,” Asian and African Studies 11 (1976/77), pp. 300–301.Google Scholar