Much of nineteenth-century Iranian history is still written from European materials--travellers’ accounts, private papers, diplomatic or commercial archives--and nowhere is that disadvantage seen more keenly than in social and economic studies. The most recent, exceedingly useful compilation of economic selections for Qajar Iran, The Economic History of Iran 1800-1914, edited by Charles Issawi, has only two extracts from first-hand nineteenth century Persian sources. Inevitably that gives a false perspective to any discussion of the internal economic structure of the country, and likewise social attitudes are glimpsed through the palimpsest of western interpretations. A basic prerequisite is the more systematic collection and classification of Persian material, from government archives, vaqf or private possession; it is only their intensive study that will provide the information about and insight into the social and economic problems that are beginning to be sketched on a more theoretical or discursive level; detailed monographic studies, on regions, towns, communities, classes, individual trades or industries, have to clothe the skeletal hypotheses which otherwise might run the risk of empty theorizing.

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.

Agricultural production considered from an economic point of view has two important functions: first, to provide prime necessities for those inside and outside the agricultural sector, and second, to enable the financing of imports. In preindustrial countries like Qajar Iran, where more than 85 percent of the population was earning its living in the agricultural sector, the economic basis of the country was land and agriculture.

Agricultural production in Qajar Iran was characterized by a low level of technical specialization and labor division. The landlords showed no great interest in furthering agricultural production as indicated by a low level of investment in this sector, while the farmers were not encouraged by their masters to work for greater productivity.

The landlords were interested only in extracting the agricultural surplus, i.e., the agricultural production minus the consumption of the agricultural sector or, in other words, that part of the production that would end up outside the agricultural sector.

In the course of the 19th century Iran was drawn into the network of the international economy mainly through foreign trade. Immigration into Iran was negligible, unlike some other countries of the Middle East and North Africa and, until the very end of the period, foreign investment was very small.

This survey of foreign trade emphasizes mainly the first half of the period and attempts to answer five broad questions:

1. (1) What was the growth in value and quantum of trade?

2. (2) What was the composition of imports and exports?

3. (3) With which countries did Iran trade?

4. (4) What were the channels through which trade flowed?

5. (5) Who carried on the trade?

I have converted all figures into pounds sterling, since the pound was both the stablest currency and the one most widely used in international trade.

Since the last world war, there has been an increasing interest in preserving and utilizing archival material in Iran, but, despite several attempts, appropriate institutions have not as yet been established for this purpose. To substantiate their viewpoints, researchers often have to wait long periods before gaining access to the desired archival material. This, of course, does not imply that documents were not preserved in Iran. Throughout the entire Qajar period, the existence of a document chamber at the imperial court, in which documents of unequal value were preserved with reasonable care, indicates that the preservation of archival material is a long-established custom.

There are also private archives of considerable interest, but unfortunately these materials were preserved for long periods only if they had legal or administrative importance. For example, the contracts for real estate transactions, or designations of waqf properties, were carefully preserved by heirs or distantly entitled parties, while documents of only practical interest usually disappeared within two or three generations.