The Rise and Fall of Industrial Agriculture in the Reign of Reza Shah

The agricultural economy in Iran underwent a change, from daily living production to commercial one, after joining the world market of capitalism during the Qajar Dynasty. Commercialization of agricultural production in Iran—which was the doomed economic destiny of most undeveloped societies—suffered from interruption from 1309 to 1316. This interruption was due to the change in ways of production from commercial agriculture to industrial one. So, for the first time agricultural economy of Iran experienced the rise and fall of a new way of production from 1309 to 1316 that can be called ‘industrial agriculture’. On the basis of this idea, the present article, through using archive documents and newspapers of the reign of Pahlavi I,will study why and how the rise and fall of industrial agriculture happened. The result of this survey shows that he tendency of government for establishing mechanized industry in order to produce consumer goods paved the way for the emergence of industrial agriculture which aimed at development of cultivation of primary agricultural products needed for industry like beetroot, tea, cotton and tobacco. Failure of industrial agriculture forced Iran to export primary agricultural products which were necessary for Nazi Germany`s industry after termination of secret commercial protocols between the two countries.