The performance of the Qajar government in the crisis of rising prices(1896-1906/1314-1324)

Iran’s economy was in crisis in the decade leading up to the Constitutional Revolution. The crisis was characterized by a budget deficit, rising foreign debt, structural corruption, unemployment and labor migration to foreign countries, and a lack of economic infrastructure. The consequences of the crisis were more pronounced than any other sector in the increase in the price of essential goods. The present study tries to answer the question by studying the grounds for thr crisis of rising prices and its effects: whats actions did the Qajar government take during the reign of Mozaffar al-din Shah to curb the crisis of rising prices, and what were the results of the government’s actions? The hypothesis of the present article is that, in the Qajar government, there was no single economic policy to curb rising prices, and the measures taken were partial and based on the individual abilities of government officials. Therefore, as the research findings show, the formation of the regulatory Assembly of rates, tax exemptions and reductions, export bans, increase imports, payment of differences in prices of essential goods, tightening price controls, dismissal of some government officials and the use of force. In the short term, prices slowed, but in the medium term, to no avail, leading to social unrest and livelihood riots. The method of the present research is historical with a descriptive-analytical approach.