ABSTRACT
The object of this paper is to examine briefly the economic development in Iran in the period between the emergence of the Safavid's despotism in 1501, and the collapse of the Zand dynasty and the establishment of the Qajars at the end of the eighteenth century. It is maintained that this period represents the most significant phase of Iranian history. Not only did the decline which beset the economy from the end of the seventeenth century coincide with a rapid expansion and growth in Europe, but available evidence indicates that the Iranian economy appeared to be less backward during the first half of the sixteenth century than it was at the turn of the nineteenth century. In other words, around the year 1800, the Iranian economy was already in crisis which intensified in the course of the nineteenth century, eventually paving the way for the Constitutional Movement of 1906–11.
