´¡²ÑĪ±·(-E DAR)-AL-Å»´¡¸éµþ, ḤĀJJ MOḤAMMAD-ḤASAN KOMPÄ€NĪ Eá¹¢FAHÄ€NĪ (1253-1316/1837-98), custodian of the state mint under NÄá¹£er-al-dÄ«n Shah, regarded as the most successful Iranian entrepreneur of his time. Though most frequently remembered for his experiments in the field of industry, his principle activities were in banking and foreign trade. From the 1870s he was one of Tehran’s most important ²õ²¹°ù°ùÄå´Ús and in the last decade of his life he dealt in commercial and treasury bills, exchanged foreign currency, gave credit, and accepted deposits on a scale matched only by the ṬowmÄnÄ«Äns Brothers, ArbÄb JamšÄ«d, and possibly the EtteḥÄdÄ«ya Company. Over the same period he established a large business in many lines of foreign trade, including some dominated by foreign companies with whom few Iranians were able to compete. In 1897 a British observer put his capital at two to three million tomans and listed his principle exports as cotton, wool, and silk to Russia; raw and spun silk to Marseilles; and tobacco to Egypt and the Levant. His imports were tea and shawls from India, sugar from France, and cotton piece goods from Great Britain. At this time his interests in the import trade extended to the Egyptian and Turkish as well as the Iranian market and he possessed holdings in Manchester cotton mills, a silk factory in Paris, and glass and sugar factories in Marseilles, where he maintained permanent offices (H. Picot, Biographical Notices of Members of the Royal Family, Notables, Merchants and Clergy, F.O. 881/7027, December, 1897, pp. 65, 66). This trade was conducted through an extensive network of agents and factors residing in Western Europe, Russia, India, and various parts of the Ottoman Empire (A. Mahdavi, “Les archives Aminozzarb, source pour l’histoire économique et sociale de l’Iran, fin XIXe-début XXe siècle,” Le monde Iranian et l’Islam 4, 1976-77, pp. 195-222).
The Persian sources often refer to AmÄ«n-al-żarb’s humble origins and a detailed account of his early life is given in an unfinished memoir written in 1347/1928 by his heir, Moḥammad-Ḥosayn (Ī. AfšÄr, “YÄdgÄr-e zendagÄnÄ«-e ḤÄÇ°Ç° Ḥosayn AmÄ«n-al-żarb,” ³Û²¹á¸¡mÄå 15/5 1341 Š./1962, ż²¹³¾Ä«³¾²¹, 29 pp.). According to this Moḥammad-Ḥasan was born in Isfahan to a family that had been engaged in trade for at least three generations. Just prosperous enough to give him an elementary education, his father, Ä€qÄ Moḥammad-Ḥosayn, died bankrupt while Moḥammad-Ḥasan was still a youth. He began his career as a penniless book-keeper to the á¹£a°ù°ùÄå´Ú, ḤÄÇ°Ç° Moḥammad KÄẓem, who appears to have treated him as a favored apprentice, occasionally lending him capital to use on his own account. The chronology of the memoir suggests that Moḥammad-Ḥasan remained with Moḥammad-KÄẓem until the mid-1850s, when he moved to Tehran to begin his own small trading establishment. By the 1860s he had become agent to an important European company, probably Ralli Brothers. This connection gave Moḥammad-Ḥasan the popular byname “KompÄnÄ«” and decisively shaped the development of his career. The experience he gained through his dealings with the firm enabled him to make an early independent entry into the growing trade between Iran and Western Europe. During the 1870s he worked this trade in partnership with ḤÄÇ°Ç°Ä« Ê¿Abd-al-ḤamÄ«d, a prominent Isfahani merchant established in TabrÄ«z, and with the help of his two younger brothers, Abu’l-QÄsem, who later became the Malek-al-toÇ°Ç°Är of Khorasan, and Moḥammad-Raḥīm, who for many years looked after his business interests in France. Perhaps of greater significance at this stage, Ralli Brothers’ need for credit to finance its purchases of export commodities in the provinces led to a rapid expansion of Moḥammad-Ḥasan’s á¹£a°ù°ùÄå´ÚÄ« and, because much of the borrowing was made on state revenues, brought him vital contacts at the court and in the »åÄ«±¹Äå²Ô. The closest and most important of these contacts was with EbrÄhÄ«m Khan AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än, who in 1292/1875 added responsibility for the Treasury and the Tehran mint to his burgeoning empire within the »åÄ«±¹Äå²Ô (for the circumstances in which AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än acquired these offices see DÅ«st-Ê¿AlÄ« Khan MoÊ¿ayyer-al-mamÄlek, ¸é±ðÇ°Äå±ô-e Ê¿aá¹£r-e NÄá¹£erÄ«, Tehran, 1362 Š./1982, pp. 33, 145, 194). During the same year an Austrian adviser, Monsieur Pechan, arrived in Iran to supervise a long-projected reform of the currency which involved the erection of a modern mint in Tehran, the closure of the provincial mints, and the standardization of coins. It was after Pechan’s departure in 1879 that the shah, on EbrÄhÄ«m Khan’s recommendation, granted to Moḥammad-Ḥasan custodianship of the mint (amÄ«nÄ«-e żarrÄb-ḵÄna) at an annual salary of 300 tomans (text of a firman dated 3 JomÄdÄ II 1296/25 May 1879, reproduced in MaḥbÅ«bÄ« ArdakÄnÄ«, TÄrīḵ-e moʾassasÄt, II, p. 52).
Over the next three years AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än and Moḥammad-Ḥasan continued the currency reform by increasing the new mint’s capacity and supervising the removal of old coins from circulation; an official bulletin announcing its completion was published in RabÄ«Ê¿ I, 1299/January-February, 1882 (text reproduced in M. YaktÄʾī, TÄrīḵ-e dÄrÄʾī-e ĪrÄn va gomrokÄt va enḥeá¹£ÄrÄt, Tehran, 1340 Š./1961, pp. 197-98). Soon afterwards a rift occurred between the two men and in 1300/1883 Moḥammad-Ḥasan, by this time entitled AmÄ«n-e DÄr-al-żarb, briefly lost his position to BÄqer Khan SaÊ¿d-al-salá¹ana. However, he was reinstated before AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än’s death in the same year and retained the custodianship under AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än’s son and heir, MÄ«rzÄ Ê¿AlÄ« Aṣḡar Khan. There is some uncertainty about the terms of his tenure of the office during this second phase, which lasted until 1310/1893. Moḥammad-Ḥosayn’s memoir insists that, throughout, AmÄ«n-al-żarb managed the mint as his patrons’ salaried employee and, by private arrangement, received 2,000 tomans per annum until 1304/1887, and 5,000 tomans thereafter (“YÄdgÄr-e zendagÄnÄ«,” p. 13). All other sources assume that he was a partner in the farm, for which, in the late 1880s, an annual rental of 22,000 tomans was paid to the Treasury (e.g., EÊ¿temÄd-al-salá¹ana, ¸éÅ«³ú-²ÔÄå³¾²¹-ye ḵÄá¹erÄt, ed. Ī. AfšÄr, 3rd ed., Tehran, 2536 [= 1356 Š.]/1977, p. 849).
The growth of AmÄ«n-al-żarb’s friendship with the AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Äns coincided with the beginnings of his activities as an innovator and advocate of reform. An open admirer of Sayyed JamÄl-al-dÄ«n, who visited Tehran as his guest in 1304/1887, he had strong nationalist proclivities and an acute grasp of the technological and institutional sources of Western progress. This outlook first became evident in a letter to NÄá¹£er-al-dÄ«n Shah, dated 15 ŠaÊ¿bÄn 1296/4 August 1879, which outlined plans to establish an investment bank on the Franco-German model, to be financed and managed by a consortium of Iranian merchants (text reproduced in BÄnk-e MellÄ«-e ĪrÄn, TÄrīḵÄa-ye sÄ«-sÄla-ye BÄnk-e MellÄ«-e ĪrÄn, Tehran, n.d., p. 65). Five years later AmÄ«n-al-żarb played a leading role in an abortive move to establish autonomous merchant councils (maÇ°les-e wokalÄ-ye toÇ°Ç°Är) charged with the administration of commercial affairs, the adjudication of commercial disputes, and economic development within the areas of their authority (F. Ä€damÄ«yat and H. NÄá¹eq, AfkÄr-e eÇ°temÄÊ¿Ä« va sÄ«ÄsÄ« va eqteá¹£ÄdÄ« dar ÄṯÄr-e montašer-našoda-ye dawrÄn-e QÄÇ°Är, Tehran, 1356 Š./1977, pp. 299-371). AmÄ«n-al-żarb’s own pioneering but only partially successful ventures in the use of modern technology included the following: (1) A silk-spinning factory, installed at Rašt in 1302/1885, employing about 150 workers and producing spun silk for export to Marseilles. (2) Twenty-one kilometers of railway linking Ä€mol and the iron mines of MÄhÄn-NÅ«r to the Caspian port of MaḥmÅ«dÄbÄd. Conceived in 1304/1887, the project prompted the first of AmÄ«n-al-żarb’s three visits to Europe. About 700,000 tomans were invested; the railway was completed in 1308/1891 but never used (A. Ašraf, MawÄneÊ¿-e tÄrīḵī-e rošd-e sarmÄya-dÄrÄ« dar ĪrÄn, Tehran, 1359 Š./1980, pp. 82-83). (3) A small glass factory installed in Tehran in 1305/1888; a porcelain factory was later added. (4) A large irrigation pump installed at Ḥasan KÄ«Äda in 1314/1896. Intended to improve rice cultivation on Moḥammad-Ḥasan’s estates in the LaštenešÄ area of GÄ«lÄn, the pump was not suited to the terrain (M. Ê¿A. JamÄlzÄda, GanÇ°-e šÄyagÄn, Berlin, 1335/1917, pp. 85, 94).
AmÄ«n-al-żarb’s large investment in these projects contributed greatly to the widespread opinion, reflected in many contemporary Persian accounts, that in collusion with Ê¿AlÄ« Aṣḡar Khan AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än he was responsible, both during the 1880s and 1890s, for a debasement of coins which brought him great wealth but disrupted commerce and the finances of the state (MÄ«rzÄ Ê¿AlÄ« Khan AmÄ«n-al-dawla, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù-e sÄ«ÄsÄ«, ed., Ḥ. FarmÄnfarmÄʾīÄn, Tehran, 1341 Š./1962, pp. 69-70, 104, 136, 200-01; Ê¿AbbÄs MÄ«rzÄ MolkÄrÄ, Šarḥ-e ḥÄl, ed. Ê¿A. NavÄʾī, Tehran, 1361 Š./1982, pp. 190-91; Ḡ. Ḥ. Afżal-al-molk, ´¡´Úż²¹±ô-²¹±ô-³Ù²¹·ÉÄå°ùīḵ, ed. M. EtteḥÄdÄ«ya and S. SaÊ¿dvandÄ«Än, Tehran, 1361 $./1982, p. 52). Yet although currency values did depreciate throughout this period the evidence suggests that until 1310/1893 the main causes of the decline were a fall in international silver prices and the imbalance of Iran’s external trade.
On 3 RaÇ°ab 1310/22 January 1893 responsibility for the mint was ceded to Moḥammad-WalÄ« Khan Naá¹£r-al-salá¹ana TonokÄbonÄ«, a member of the court faction led by KÄmrÄn MÄ«rzÄ NÄyeb-al-salá¹ana, who offered the Shah a piškeš (“gift”) of 50,000 tomans and an annual rental of 120,000 tomans, nearly six times the sum previously paid to the treasury (EÊ¿temÄd-al-salá¹ana, ¸éÅ«³ú-²ÔÄå³¾²¹, p. 849; AmÄ«n-al-dawla, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù, pp. 136-37). Moḥammad-WalÄ« Khan was given the newly created post of wazÄ«r-e maskÅ«kÄt (minister of coinage) and a certain ḤÄÇ°Ç°Ä« Moḥammad-Moḥsen was appointed custodian of the mint. Twelve months later AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än’s nephew-in-law, ḠolÄm-Ê¿AlÄ« Khan AmÄ«n-e HomÄyÅ«n, together with AmÄ«n-al-żarb tendered a still larger bid for the farm: 60,000 tomans piškeš and 124,000 tomans rental. AmÄ«n-e HomÄyÅ«n was made wazÄ«r-e maskÅ«kÄt in Ḏu’l-qaÊ¿da, 1311/May, 1894, after a council of notables, convened to consider charges of peculation against Naá¹£r-al-salá¹ana, found that silver coins minted under him were 1.5 percent below the requisite fineness (EÊ¿temÄd-al-salá¹ana, ¸éÅ«³ú-²ÔÄå³¾²¹, pp. 925, 951-53; AmÄ«n-al-dawla, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù, pp. 137-38; M. HedÄyat, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù o ḵaá¹arÄt, Tehran, 1329 Š./1950, pp. 117-18). Defective silver coins were also issued under AmÄ«n-e HomÄyÅ«n, whose relationship with AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än and AmÄ«n-al-żarb appears to have deteriorated after he took charge of the mint. Finally, in ŠawwÄl, 1312/March, 1895, the farm once more reverted to AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än (¸éÅ«³ú-²ÔÄå³¾²¹, pp. 1042-43; AmÄ«n-al-dawla, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù, pp. 138-39). AmÄ«n-al-solá¹Än’s new contract, which according to BÄmdÄd embodied financial arrangements similar to those concluded in May, 1894, was valid for the next eleven years, but naturally lapsed when he fell from power in JomÄdÄ II, 1314/November, 1894 (µþÄå³¾»åÄå»å, ¸é±ðÇ°Äå±ô III, p. 352).
A far more serious problem than the spate of defective silver issued in 1893 and 1894 was the flood of copper or “black” money produced by the various farmers over this four-year period as a means of recovering their huge outlays. Already slightly depressed when the mint first changed hands, the value of the copper &²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô;Äå³óÄ«, a token coin used extensively in everyday transactions, deteriorated steadily in 1893 and 1894 and with great rapidity during the next two years. By 1314/1896 the rate of exchange between it and the silver ±ç±ð°ùÄå²Ô, officially 20:1, averaged 30:1, and at the height of the black-money crisis which developed in that year, it briefly touched 80:1 (figures for the Shiraz market from WaqÄyeÊ¿-e ettefÄqÄ«ya, ed. A. SaÊ¿Ä«dÄ« SÄ«rÇ°ÄnÄ«, Tehran, 1361 Š./1982, p. 510). Whatever the real extent of his responsibility for this debasement, AmÄ«n-al-żarb was widely considered to have been its chief beneficiary, and at the beginning of RaÇ°ab, 1314/December, 1896, he was arrested and imprisoned by Moḵber-al-dawla, Minister of the Interior. He was fined 765,000 tomans (different figures are given by AmÄ«n-al-dawla and MostawfÄ« and a ´Ú²¹³Ù·ÉÄå was obtained from MÄ«rzÄ á¸¤asan Ä€štÄ«ÄnÄ« stating that this sum covered the loss to the community arising from the excess issue of black money (HedÄyat, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù, pp. 136-38; AmÄ«n-al-dawla, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù, p. 232; Ê¿A. MostawfÄ«, Šarḥ-e zendagÄnÄ«-e man, Tehran, 1343 Š./1964, II, p. 11; Ḥosayn-qolÄ« Khan NeẓÄm-al-salá¹ana, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù o asnÄd, ed. M. NeẓÄm MÄfÄ« et al., Tehran, 1361 Š./1982, pp. 207-08; Afżal-al-molk, ´¡´Úż²¹±ô-²¹±ô-³Ù²¹·ÉÄå°ùīḵ, p. 52). He had once before been tried under NÄá¹£er-al-dÄ«n Shah on the charge of unauthorized minting of too many copper coins for his own benefit, but without much consequence (AmÄ«n-al-dawla, ḴÄá¹±ð°ùÄå³Ù, pp. 195-201).
Though at this point removed from the custodianship of the mint, AmÄ«n-al-żarb was not excluded from public life. At the beginning of ŠaÊ¿bÄn, 1314/January, 1897, Moḵber-al-dawla informed all provincial governors that he was still regarded as “merchant to the state” (tÄÇ°er-e maḵṣūṣ-e dawlat) (MaḥbÅ«bÄ« ArdakÄnÄ«, TÄrīḵ-e moʾassasÄt, p. 58). Towards the end of á¹¢afar, 1315/July, 1898, he formed a syndicate which was given a contract to farm the mint by the government of AmÄ«n-al-dawla, previously one of his most vehement critics (Picot, Biographical Notices, p. 66). Finally, when famine struck the capital city in the autumn of 1316/1898, he headed a commission charged with the supervision of grain prices. He performed this task with such courage and efficiency that by the time of his death in ŠaÊ¿bÄn/December of the same year, he was one of the most popular figures in Tehran (Afżal al-tawÄrīḵ, pp. 288-89, 369-70).
Bibliography:
See also, M. H. EÊ¿temÄd-al-salá¹ana, Ḵalsa mašhÅ«r be ḵᵛÄb-nÄma, ed.
M. KatÄ«rÄʾī, Tehran, 1348 Š./1969, p. 68.
µþÄå³¾»åÄå»å, ¸é±ðÇ°Äå±ô III, pp. 348-62; IV, pp. 17-20.
Ḥ. MaḥbÅ«bÄ« ArdakÄnÄ«, TÄrīḵ-e moʾassasÄt-e tamaddonÄ«-e Ç°adÄ«d dar ĪrÄn, Tehran, 2537 = 1357 Š./1978, II, pp. 48-67, 107-08, 329-31.
S. Bakhash, Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and Reform under the Qajars, 1858-1869, London, 1978, pp. 270-72.
(A. Enayat)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: February 20, 2015
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 9, pp. 951-953
A. Enayat, “´¡²ÑĪ±·-AL-Å»´¡¸éµþ, ḤĀJJ MOḤAMMAD-ḤASAN,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/9, pp. 951-953, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amin-e-dar-al-zarb-hajj-mohammad-hasan (accessed on 30 December 2012).
