The working life of Iranians in the South Caucasus; Employment status, working hours and wages (from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century)

احمدی, مهدی

doi:10.30465/sehs.2025.49720.2000

The working life of Iranians in the South Caucasus; Employment status, working hours and wages (from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century)

Document Type : .

Author

مهدی احمدی

PhD in Iranian History after Islam, DepartmentofHistory, Faculty of Humanities,Tarbiat Modares University,Tehran,Iran

https://doi.org/10.30465/sehs.2025.49720.2000

Abstract

1.Introduction
Statement of the subject: During the Qajar period, especially during the reign of Nasser al-Din Shah, a large part of the Iranian workforce, under the influence of internal conditions and the situation in the Caucasus, legally and illegally left the borders and migrated to these regions. Most of these people were from the provinces of Azerbaijan, Khorasan, Gilan, Mazandan, and cities such as Zanjan and Hamedan, who had a different status from others in terms of class existence; that is, the type of access to various sources of power (material capital, organizational authority, and knowledge and skills with exchange value in the labor market). These immigrants included landless and land-owning peasants, the urban poor, craftsmen who worked in workshops and handicrafts, and a number of small merchants and artisans who lived in cities and villages but migrated to the Caucasus as a result of social, economic, and political conditions.
Statement of the problem: From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the Iranian workforce in the Caucasus went through different lived experiences than they had in Iran, one of the most important of which was in the field of their type of employment, working hours, and wages. The main issue of the present study is the relationship between the class existence of the Iranian workforce in the Caucasus and their job status, working hours, and wages.
Objective: The objective of the present article is to analyze the lived experience of Iranian migrant workers in the fields of employment, working hours, and wages.
Questions:In what sectors were the Iranian workforce employed in the Caucasus? And given the occupation situation in the Caucasus, what was the status of their working hours and wages?
Hypotheses: The class existence of Iranian migrants was in a cause-and-effect relationship with their lived experience; That is, due to the type of class existence (lack of material capital, means of production, and knowledge and skills) that they had, the Iranian workforce mostly worked more than 12 hours as workers in the oil industry, mines, agriculture, docks, etc., but they were at the lowest level in terms of financial income. In this way, depending on the type of work they did, they received an average of between 12 and 21 rubles, some of which was reduced for fines and bribes.
Research Background: Hassan Hakimian (1995), Touraj Atabaki (2017), Seyyed Hashem Aghajari, Mehdi Ahmadi and Dariush Rahmanian (February 1402) and Omrieh Ahadeva, Qobad Mansurbakht and Karim Karaikoglu Shekorov (Summer 1402) have written articles on the Iranian workforce in the Caucasus. In these articles, researchers have covered aspects of the social and cultural life of immigrants while addressing the issue of migration, but have not addressed the issue of employment, working hours, and wages. In light of this, the present article, in addition to paying attention to the employment status, working hours, and financial income of the Iranian workforce, attempts to determine the relationship between class existence and their lived experience using a bottom-up approach to history and inspired by Thompson's methodology.
2.Materials & Methods
The present article is written with a "history from below" approach and inspired by the methodology of Edward Palmer Thompson in his book "The Formation of the Working Class in England" and collecting data from archival sources. This article has set its target population as all Iranians who migrated to the South Caucasus regions from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries and were known as workers in the oil industry, mines, agriculture, docks, etc.Discussion & Result

Findings

Type of employment of Iranian immigrants in the Caucasus: Iranian labor force, known in the Caucasus as Fele and Emel, performed various jobs such as drilling, well drilling, portering, serving, serving, building, trading, selling opium, hoisting, selling coal, etc.
Working hours of Iranian labor force: The working hours of workers were not less than 12 hours. In some places, workers were even forced to work between 12 and 20 hours and in two shifts.
Salary of Iranian workers: Iranian workers in the South Caucasus received a monthly salary of 12 to 21 rubles, depending on the type of work they did.

Discussion and Conclusion

When the Iranian labor force migrated to the Caucasus, they did not have material capital and means of production, nor did they have technical knowledge and skills. They did jobs such as drilling, well drilling, portering, serving, serving, building, trading, selling opium, hoisting, selling coal, etc. Due to the lack of necessary skills and poverty and hardship, they were willing to do any kind of work for more than 12 hours and even two shifts throughout the day, but they received lower wages than Russian, Georgian, Armenian and even local workers, and part of these wages were reduced as a result of fines and bribes that they had to pay. In this way, Iranian workers received a monthly wage of 12 to 21 rubles (depending on the type of work they did) for 12 hours of daily work and even more.
Iranian migrant workers, regardless of their job and wage level, were in a brutal relationship of open and hidden exploitation with their employers; This means that employers practically tried their best to hire more workers with lower wages. Therefore, they usually adhered to the law less in hiring workers and their wages and acted as they saw fit. Overtime, fines, bribes and firing workers under various pretexts and illegally were common, and workers had no right to protest because they were suppressed or fired by the employers and sometimes by the government.
It is suggested that such research be considered in the industrial sector and labor society because in terms of effectiveness, paying attention to wages, working hours and the standard of living of workers, which is discussed in this research, is effective as a historical example in their decision-making and can reduce the level of tension in workplaces.

Keywords

Iranian immigrants

Caucasus

workers

oil industry

wages

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