Document Type : .

Authors

• Marziye Mamsoury ¹
• Jamshid Noroozi ²

¹ PhD student of Iranian history, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

² Associate Professor of History department. Faculty of Literature. Alzahra. University. Tehran. Iran

Abstract

Extended abstract
Despite the outbreak of the Second World War (1318-1324/1939-1945) between the United States (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the Allied States (Russia, England, Japan and America), the flames of war and the economic consequences and crises following the war, It also affected some other countries. The entry of Allied troops (especially Russia and England) into Iran in Shahrivar 1941/1320 and the removal of Reza Shah from the throne show that Iran has been affected by the effects of World War politically as well as socially and economically. Russia, in addition to occupying the northern provinces of the country and monitoring the government offices of these areas, monitored the entry and exit of goods and food items and even the movement of people in these areas. The British also had influence and colorful presence in many parts of Iran, especially in the south. The presence of foreigners in Iran and the problems of the Iranian governments in providing the items needed by the people, caused 12 cabinets to come to work within 4 years. This instability of governance and frequent changes were affected by inefficiency in crisis management. Among these crises, the crisis of lack of basic items (such as wheat, sugar, tea, fuel and oil) stood out more. According to the researches that have been done before in the field of lack of basic items such as wheat, sugar, and sugar, the focus of this article is on tea as one of the most consumed basic goods of the people. The spread of tea consumption in the Islamic world has been taking place over many years with ups and downs. In tracking the spread of tea consumption and the hierarchy of distribution of its consumption from the courtiers to the middle classes, various issues such as historical, social, jurisprudential and cultural changes and developments of Islamic societies should be taken into consideration. The popularization of tea consumption in Iranian society, like other Islamic countries, has come a long way from the 10th to the 13th century AH/16-19 AD. The peak of the popularity of tea, at the cost of the abandonment of a more traditional drink, namely coffee, mainly took place at the end of the Qajar era (Metin, "The History of Tea in Iran", 2018, pp. 1 and 2).
Despite the innovativeness of the subject of this article and the lack of relevant and independent research background in the field of the tea crisis at the mentioned time, there are cases that mainly use a descriptive approach to express the importance of tea consumption and status among Iranians. Including the article "Tea" written by Peyman Metin, which was published in 2018 in the Big Islamic Encyclopaedia, it has provided valuable information in the field of etymology, the history of tea consumption and cultivation, and the status of its consumption among Iranians. Also, in the article "Tea Preparation Tools" published in the previous work, Nasim Moqrab introduces tea preparation tools at the beginning of tea consumption. The article "Analysis of the evolution of Iranian taste from coffee to tea in the Qajar era" by Sohaila Torabi Farsani and colleagues, has discussed the importance of tea consumption in Iran during the Qajar era and the factors influencing the change of Iranian taste from coffee to tea. The article "Looking at the history of tea and the role of Kashif al-Sultaneh in the revival of this industry in Iran", written by Emaduddin Fayazi and colleagues, has examined the process of planting tea and its arrival in Iran. Contrary to such researches, which have described the place and importance of tea consumption among Iranians, the present research is dedicated to why and how the tea crisis occurred in Iran compared to World War II and the strategies of Iranian governments to control this crisis.
 
In expressing the importance of this research, aside from the close connection between the lack of basic items and the economic crisis and the need to benefit from historical experiences in economic studies, the place of tea in the Iranian society of those days and the effect of the tea crisis on the lives of Iranians at that time should be considered. . The consumption of tea in Iranian society compared to the Second World War was so high that tea along with sugar was the country's highest import figure. Due to this, Reza Shah was able to finance the construction of the north-south railway from the tax on sugar and tea. At this point, despite the prevalence of tea cultivation and the activity of several domestic tea processing factories, a significant amount of tea was imported due to the impossibility of meeting the country's needs internally or the poor quality of domestic tea.
 
This research, relying on the contents of documents and newspapers and with a descriptive-analytical approach, tries to answer the question of why and how the tea crisis occurred in Iran during the years 1325-1320. The hypothesis of the research is that external and internal factors have been effective in the emergence and escalation of this crisis, respectively. Factors such as the sharp decrease in the amount of tea imports, the intervention of the Middle East procurement center in the import of tea, the control of the allies over Iran's affairs and the taking of transportation facilities were involved in creating the tea crisis; Also, factors such as hoarding, corruption of government officials, failure to properly implement the government's decisions and measures to resolve the crisis, and monopolization of this commodity were effective in the escalation or consistency of the tea crisis in Iran.
 

Keywords

• Tea
• tea crisis
• World War II
• Iran