The Performance of the Qajar Government Periods the Crisis of Rising Prices (1896-1906/1314-1324 AH)

Iran’s economy was in crisis periods 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 than any other sector were more pronounced in the increase in the price of essential goods. The present study tries to answer these questions by studying the causes of the crisis of rising costs and its manifestation: what actions did the Qajar government take during the reign of Mozaffar al-din Shah to curb the problem of rising prices, and what were the results of the government’s actions? The present article hypothesizes 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. As the research findings show, these measures included: the formation of the regulatory assembly of rates, tax exemptions and reductions, export bans, an increase of 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, price increases slowed, but these measures were to no avail in the medium term, leading to social unrest and livelihood riots. The method of the present research is historical with a descriptive-analytical approach