Commericialization of Agriculture

Production and Trade of Opium in Persia, 1850–1906

Bibliographic Data

ID8967934
AuthorsAhmad Seyf (corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume16
Issue2
Pages233-250
Publication date1984-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743800027951
OpenAlexW1964287700
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited2

The conventional wisdom regarding the cultivation of cash crops (such as opium) is based on the assumption that raising a cash crop implies a certain degree of development of the productive forces of the economy. Having reached that degree, it is argued, the economy is better able to release portions of its land and labour from the production of basic necessities, i.e., food crops, and allocate them to the production of crops which are not immediately and directly consumed, but rather are produced to be exchanged in the market. This approach presupposes a relatively well-developed market economy and the existence of a relatively efficient transport system, both being, among other preconditions, essential for the emergence and development of an economy based on exchange. The main objective of this paper is to show that this model, despite being applicable to the Western European economies at an earlier stage of their industrialization, does not necessarily explain the situation in Iran during 1850–1906 (the period under review). We further argue that the production of opium or other cash crops had little to do with the development of Iranian agriculture or the development of the productive forces in the economy as a whole

Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Cash · Cash crop · Economics · Economy · Geography · Industrialisation · Macroeconomics · Market economy · Opium · Production (economics · Islamic Studies and History

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