Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T02:58:11.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Tobacco, Eurasian Trade, and the Early Modern Iranian Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ranin Kazemi*
Affiliation:
International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam and Kansas State University

Abstract

This article focuses on the development of the tobacco industry in Iran during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It uses this discussion as an entry point to inquire about the early modern Iranian economy. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources, it makes several historiographical interventions. In explaining what the development of a completely new agrarian industry means in Iranian society, the paper suggests that innovation and intensification may not have been completely absent in agriculture and that in contrast to the way some of the available literature tends to argue, the Iranian economy may not have experienced continuous decline in all sectors throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition, this article contends that the tobacco industry helped bring about the rise of merchants and landowners in Iranian society, and with that the further development of mass consumption and ever-increasing cycles of production and accumulation that expanded the commercialization of agriculture, domestic and international trade networks, and Iran’s agrarian economy.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Ranin Kazemi is grateful to Kioumars Ghereghlou, Stephen F. Dale, Abbas Amanat, Alan Mikhail, Robert Harms, Navid Fozi, Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, Homa Katouzian, and the anonymous reviewers at Iranian Studies for their comments on the earlier drafts of this paper. Support was provided in the writing of this article by the Prince Dr. Sabbar Farman-Farmaian Research Project Fellowship at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. Particular thanks are due to Touraj Atabaki.

References

Al-e Davud, ‘Ali. “Coffee.” In Encyclopedia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan. New York: Columbia University Center for Iranian Studies, Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1982–Present.Google Scholar
Aslanian, Sebouh. From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants in New Julfa. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baghdiantz McCabe, Ina. The Shah’s Silk for Europe’s Silver: The Eurasian Trade of the Julfa Armenians in Safavid Iran and India (1530–1750). Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Baghdiantz McCabe, Ina, Harlaftis, Gelina, and Minoglu, Ioanna Pepelasis, eds. Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks: Four Centuries of History. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2005.Google Scholar
Baladouni, Vahé, and Makepeace, Margaret, eds. Armenian Merchants of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries: English East India Sources. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1998.Google Scholar
Barendse, Rene J. The Arabian Seas: The Indian Ocean World of the Seventeenth Century. Armonk: M. E. Sharp, 2002.Google Scholar
Bastani Parizi, Mohammad-Ebrahim. Seyasat va eqtesad dar ‘asr-e Safavi. Tehran: Safi ‘Ali Shah, 1984.Google Scholar
Bayburdyan, Vahan. International Trade and the Armenian Merchants in the Seventeenth Century. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 2004.Google Scholar
Beaujard, Philippe. “The Indian Ocean in Eurasian and African World-Systems before the Sixteenth Century.” Journal of World History 16, no. 4 (2005): 411465. doi: 10.1353/jwh.2006.0014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, Peter Weston. “The Anthropology of Tobacco Use: Tobian Data and Theoretical Issues.” Journal of Anthropological Research 40, no. 4 (1984): 475503. doi: 10.1086/jar.40.4.3629794CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braudel, Fernand. The Wheels of Commerce. Vol. 2 of Civilization and Capitalism, 15th–18th Century. Translated by Siân Reynolds. New York: Harper & Row, 1981–84.Google Scholar
Buckingham, James Silk. Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia. 2 vols. London: Colburn, 1830.Google Scholar
Bulliet, Richard W. Cotton, Climate, and Camels in Early Islamic Iran: A Moment in World History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, Kirti N. Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilization of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, Kirti N. Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chardin, John. A New and Accurate Description of Persia. 2 vols. London: Bettesworth, 1724.Google Scholar
Dale, Stephen F. The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Della Valle, Pietro. The Travels of Sig. Pietro della Valle. London: Macock, 1665.Google Scholar
Falsafi, Nasr Allah. Zendagani-ye Shah ‘Abbas-e Avval. 4 vols. Tehran: Daneshgah-e Tehran, 1968.Google Scholar
Faroqhi, Suraiya. “Trade between the Ottomans and Safavids: The Acem Tüccarı and Others.” In Iran and the World in the Safavid Age, edited by Floor, Willem and Herzig, Edmund, 237252. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem. “The Art of Smoking in Iran and Other Uses of Tobacco.” Iranian Studies 35, no. 1/3 (2002): 4785. doi: 10.1080/00210860208702011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Floor, Willem. “Bandar-e Abbas.” In Encyclopedia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan. New York: Columbia University Center for Iranian Studies, Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1982–Present.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem. “Dutch-Persian Relations.” In Encyclopedia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan. New York: Columbia University Center for Iranian Studies, Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1982–Present.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem. The Economy of Safavid Persia. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2000.Google Scholar
Floor, Willem. “Hormuz, Islamic Period.” In Encyclopedia Iranica, edited by Yarshater, Ehsan. New York: Columbia University Center for Iranian Studies, Routlege & Kegan Paul, 1982–Present.Google Scholar
Fraser, James Baillie. Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan. London: Longman, 1825.Google Scholar
Fraser, James Baillie. Travels and Adventures in the Persian Provinces. London: Longman, 1826.Google Scholar
Fryer, John A. A New Account of East-India and Persia. London: Printed by R. R., 1698.Google Scholar
Ghougassian, Vazken S. The Emergence of the Armenian Diocese of New Julfa in the Seventeenth Century. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Gokhale, B. G.Tobacco in Seventeenth-Century India.” Agricultural History 48, no. 4 (1974): 484492.Google Scholar
Golombek, Lisa, Mason, Robert B., Proctor, Patricia, and Reilly, Eileen. Persian Pottery in the First Global Age: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Leiden: Brill, 2013.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack. The East in the West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopal, Surendra, ed. Indians in Russia in the 17th and 18th Centuries. Calcutta: Naya Prokash, 1988.Google Scholar
Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years. London: Melville House, 2011.Google Scholar
Grehan, James. “Smoking and ‘Early Modern’ Sociability: The Great Tobacco Debate in the Ottoman Middle East (Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” The American Historical Review 111, no. 5 (2006): 13521377. doi: 10.1086/ahr.111.5.1352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habib, Irfan. The Agrarian System of Mughal India (1556–1707). New York: Asia Publishing House, 1963.Google Scholar
Hakob di Murat of the Shahrimanian family to Paron Tsatur, 4 April 1733 in Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Avog Comm, busta 17, letter book of Hakob di Murat.Google Scholar
Lahiji, Hazin, ‘Ali, Mohammad. The Treatise on the Nature of Pearls of Shaikh ‘Ali Hazin. Edited and translated by Khatak, S. Khan and Spies, O. Walldorf, Hessen: Verlag für Orientkunde Dr. H. Vrondran, 1954.Google Scholar
Hambly, Gavin. “An Introduction to the Economic Organization of Early Qajar Iran.” Iran 2 (1964): 6981. doi: 10.2307/4299553CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herbert, Thomas. Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. London: Richard Bishop, 1638.Google Scholar
Herzig, Edmund. “The Armenian Merchants of New Julfa, Isfahan: A Study in Pre-Modern Asian Trade.” PhD diss., Oxford University, 1991.Google Scholar
Hodgson, Marshall. The Classical Age of Islam. Vol. 1 of The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fasa’i, Hosayni, Hasan, Mirza. Farsnameh-e Naseri. 2 vols. Tehran: Amir Kabir, 2003.Google Scholar
Kasravi, Ahmad. Tarikhcheh-ye chopoq va ghalyan. Tehran: Daftar-e Parcham, 1944.Google Scholar
Kazemi, Ranin. “Of Bang and Bada: The Making of Tobacco Culture in Early Modern Iran,” forthcoming.Google Scholar
Kazemi, Ranin. “‘Neither Indians, Nor Egyptians’: Social Protest and Islamic Populism in the Making of the Tobacco Movement in Iran, 1850–1891.” PhD diss., Yale University, 2012.Google Scholar
Keddie, Nikki, and Matthee, Rudi, eds. Iran and the Surrounding World: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Keyvani, Mehdi. “Artisans and Guild Life in the Later Safavid Period.” PhD diss., Durham University, NC, 1980.Google Scholar
Khazeni, Arash. Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Khuzani Isfahani, Fazli Beg. Afzal al-Tavarikh, Volume Three: History of the Reign of Shah ‘Abbas the Great (995–1038 A.H./A.D. 1587–1629). Edited by Ghereghlou, Kioumars and Melville, Charles. London: Gibb Memorial Trust, forthcoming in March 2015.Google Scholar
Kinneir, John Macdonald. A Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire. London: J. Murray, 1813.Google Scholar
Lippomano, Hieronimo. “A Report on the Condition of Persia in the Year 1586.” The English Historical Review 7, no. 26 (1892): 314321.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “Merchants in Safavid Iran: Participants and Perceptions.” Journal of Early Modern History 4, no. 3 (2000): 233268. doi: 10.1163/157006500X00015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. Persia in Crisis: Safavid Decline and the Fall of Isfahan. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600–1730. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500–1900. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Matthee, Rudi. “Was Safavid Iran an Empire?Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53, no. 1/2 (2010): 233265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Membré, Michele. Relazione di Persia (1542). Edited by Scarcia, Gianroberto. Napoli: Instituto Universitario Orientale, 1969.Google Scholar
Membré, Michele. Mission to the Lordy Sophy of Persia (1539–1542). Translated by A. H. Morton. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1993.Google Scholar
Minorsky, Vladimir, ed. Tadkirat al-Mulkuk: A Manual of Safavid Administration (circa 1137/1725). Cambridge: E. J. W. Gibb Memorial, 1980.Google Scholar
Nowshirvani, V. F.The Beginnings of Commercialized Agriculture in Iran.” In The Islamic Middle East, 700–1900: Studies in Economic and Social History, edited by Udovitch, A. L., 547591. Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, Inc., 1981.Google Scholar
Nuri, Mohammad Yusof. Mafatih al-arzaq ya kelid-e dar-e ganjha-ye gohar. Edited by Sa‘idlu, Hushang and Qominezhad, Mahdi. 3 vols. Tehran: Anjoman-e Asar va Mafakher-e Farhangi, 2002.Google Scholar
Olearius, Adam. The Voyages and Travells of the Ambassadors Sent by Frederick. Translated by John Davies. 2nd ed. London: John Starkey, 1669.Google Scholar
Perkins, Justin. A Residence of Eight Years in Persia. New York: Allen, Morrill & Wardwell, 1843.Google Scholar
Persian Tobacco or Tombak. (Nicotiana tabacum, L.).” Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Gardens, Kew) no. 52 (1891): 7784.Google Scholar
Polak, Jakob Eduard. Iran, sarzamin va mardom-e an. Translated by Kaykavus Jahandari. Tehran: Khvarazmi, 1989.Google Scholar
Pope, Arthur Upham. An Introduction to Persian Art since the Seventh Century A. D. London: P. Davies, 1930.Google Scholar
Price, Jacob M.The Tobacco Adventure to Russia: Enterprise, Politics, and Diplomacy in the Quest for a Northern Market for English Colonial Tobacco, 1676–1722.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society New Series 51, no. 1 (1961): 1120. doi: 10.2307/1005870CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pur Davud, Ebrahim. Hormozdnameh. Tehran: Nashreyyeh-ye Anjoman-e Iranshenasi, 1952.Google Scholar
Rawlinson, Henry. “Notes on a March from Zohab.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 9 (1839): 26116. doi: 10.2307/1797715CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray, Nicholas Dylan. “The Medieval Islamic System of Credit and Banking: Legal and Historical Considerations.” Arab Law Quarterly 12, no. 1 (1997): 4390. doi: 10.1023/B:ARAB.0000039801.80919.2cCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risso, Patricia. Merchants and Faith: Muslim Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Sanson, Nicholas. The Present State of Persia. London: M. Gilliflower in Westminster-Hall, 1695.Google Scholar
Sheil, Mary. Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia. London: J. Murray, 1856.Google Scholar
Stocqueler, Joachim Hayward. Fifteen Months’ Pilgrimage through Untrodden Tracts of Khuzistan and Persia. 2 vols. London: Saunders, 1832.Google Scholar
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. “Of Imarat and Tijarat: Asian Merchants and State Power in the Western Indian Ocean, 1400 to 1750.” Comparative Study in Society and History 37, no. 4 (1996): 750780. doi: 10.1017/S0010417500019940CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isfahan, Tahvildar-e, Khan, Mirza Hosayn. Joghrafeya-ye Isfahan: Joghrafeya-ye tabi‘i va ensani va amar-e asnaf-e shahr. Edited by Sotudeh, Manuchehr. Tehran: Daneshgah-e Tehran, 1963.Google Scholar
Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste. The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier. London: William Godbid, 1677.Google Scholar
Trocki, Carl. Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750–1950. London: Routledge, 1999.Google Scholar
Tuchscherer, Michel. “Coffee and Coffeehouses, Ottoman.” In Encyclopedia of Islam, Three, edited by Fleet, Kate, Krämer, Gudrun, Matringe, Denis, Nawas, John, and Rowson, Everett. Leiden: Brill, 2007-Present.Google Scholar
Udovitch, Abraham. Partnership and Profit in Medieval Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udovitch, Abraham. “Reflections on the Institutions of Credits and Banking in the Medieval Islamic Near East.” Studia Islamica 41 (1975): 521. doi: 10.2307/1595397CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Arendonk, C.Kahwa.” In Encyclopedia of Islam, edited by Bearman, P., Bianquis, Th., Bosworth, C. E., van Donzel, E., and Heinrichs, W. P. Leiden: Brill, 19602009.Google Scholar
Zarinebaf-Shahr, Fariba. “Tabriz under Ottoman Rule (1725–1731).” PhD diss., University of Chicago, IL, 1991.Google Scholar