نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشجوی دکتری، گروه تاریخ ایران بعد از اسلام، واحد شبستر، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، شبستر، ایران.
2 گروه تاریخ، واحد شبستر، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، شبستر، ایران
3 گروه تاریخ، واحد ابهر، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، ابهر، ایران
4 گروه تاریخ، دانشگاه فرهنگیان، تهران، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژه‌ها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
During Qajar period, the city of Tabriz served as the gateway for the introduction of
the reformist ideas and the Western goods into Iran due to its strategic geographical location and proximity to the Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire. This issue turned Tabriz into one of the earliest centers of modernization and renewal in the country. Tabrizi merchants, who possessed wealth, international trade connections, and familiarity with Western developments, had a clear understanding of Iran’s economic backwardness and took effective measures to reform the country’s economic and industrial structures. This study, taking advantage of the descriptive-analytical method, investigates the role and activities of Tabrizi merchants in regard with the economic, commercial, and industrial modernization from Nasser al-Din Shah Era until the end of the Qajar dynasty, and addresses the question on what actions Tabrizi merchants took regarding the commercial and industrial modernization. Initially, the merchants contributed to the establishment of institutions such as the Merchants’ Representatives Assembly and later the Commercial Court (Dar al-Tijarah), aiming to create a guild-like structure to organize economic activities and protect merchants’ interests against the Western economic influence and internal despotism. These institutions represented early models of civil institution-building with an economic approach and eventually evolved into the chambers of commerce. Subsequently, these merchants founded commercial offices in domestic and international cities such as Istanbul, Cairo, Bombay, and Baku, forming an active network of trade relations and international information exchange. These offices facilitated the expansion of exports, controlled imports, technology exchange, and awareness of global market trends. Another significant initiative was the establishment of modern companies or corporations. Utilizing the joint-stock investment model and pooling financial resources, these companies operated in sectors like road construction, transportation, financial services, export, and small industries. The Etihad Company, Azerbaijan Company, and the Iran Public Company were among the notable institutions in which Tabrizi merchants played influential roles. In the sphere of industrial modernization, Tabrizi merchants established factories producing carpets, spun yarn, porcelain, matches, leather, soap, and printing presses, aiming to meet the domestic market demands and counteract the dominance of Western goods. Some factories were equipped with modern machinery and even involved foreign engineers. Prominent examples include Momtaz Match Factory, Ali Monsieur’s Porcelain Factory, Baba Mohammadov Ganja’s Carpet weaving Workshop, and Mashhad Electricity factory. Moreover, Tabrizi merchants played a vital role in infrastructure development, including the establishment of telephone exchanges, power plants, the
import of steam machineries, and proposition of road construction projects. These
efforts reflect their awareness of the linkage between infrastructure, commerce, and industrial development. Although Qajar government had a limited role in guiding these transformations due to the weak economic planning, the private sector, particularly Tabrizi merchants, leveraged their capital, experience, and trade networks to offer a successful model of indigenous modernization. Besides the economic profit, their motivations included nationalist sentiments, concerns about the foreign economic domination, and desire for the national economic independence. In summary, Tabrizi merchants’ role went beyond mere trading and they laid some of the foundational pillars of Iran’s economic modernization as modernist entrepreneurs. Their activities in establishing the commercial and industrial institutions paved the way for more significant changes during the Constitutional Revolution and afterward.
کلیدواژه‌ها [English]
)