Iran's northern forests and French merchants in the early twentieth century

Like many other countries, Iran was influenced by the newly emerged capitalism which provided their own raw materials of their factories through plundering the resources of other countries. Not only British and Russian, but also French merchants were ranked as the top clients of Iran’s raw materials. Meanwhile, forests as a significant resource of wood supply were not exceptions. In this study, the form and content of the concessions signed with French merchants to utilize Quercus castanefolia to provide the required supply of wood for constructing barrels (for wine and beers), is investigated in the historical political context of the early twentieth century. For this purpose, the manuscripts and archival documents were used. The results of this study indicated that the French merchants had bought each cubic meter of stand oak trees in Iran almost 180 times cheaper than the same one in France. In addition, the lack of awareness of the Iranian private forest owners of the real value of their properties led to the maximum misuse by the French merchants. Unfortunately, the Iranian government was also unable to support the Iranian subjects.