Tea Industry and Oil-Free Economy in the National Government of Iran (1951-1953)

Abstract

This article deals with the tea industry's contribution to Iran's economy during the oil nationalization movement and assesses the role of the tea industry in achieving the oil-free economy policy in the National government. This article is based on unpublished documents from the National Iranian Documents’ Organization and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Records also in order to enhance our understanding of the situation newspapers and some other published sources have been emphasized onto depict the importance of the issue. The research method of this study is that of an descriptive-analytical approach, thus this study seeks to show how the ups and downs of tea imports were during the economic sanctions in the period of oil nationalization and how the government managed to expand the domestic production of tea to save money, also what role this industry played to compensate the currency shortages. Therefore, the main question of this paper is whether the policy of restricting imports and developing domestic tea production could have solved an important problem amongst the many problems of the national government or not. The results show that despite the government's efforts to increase tea production and prevent its unauthorized entry into the country, the product failed to play a significant role in implementing the oil-free economy program.

Keywords

• national government
• oil-free economy
• currency savings
• tea industry