Finance and financial situation of the Iranian government under Prime Minister Amirkabir(1264 - 1268 AH / 1848-1851 AD)

Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar (d. 1264-1313 AH) came to the throne while the political, economic and financial situation of the country was very turbulent and critical. Therefore, upon his arrival in Tehran, he appointed Amir Kabir as chief minister. Amir Kabir carried out extensive reforms to improve the economic situation and the organization of the country's finances, which, according to various sources as well as new researches, were successful. However, due to the lack of access to official statistics, these works have not been able to accurately describe the financial policy of Amir Kabir. The main question of the present study is how Amir's fiscal policy had improved the situation of the central treasury and how successful he was. For this purpose, with a descriptive-analytical method, along with the analysis of statistics extracted from the financial documents in bureau, the study tries to determine the impact of Amir's reform programs and financial policies on the country's expenditures. The findings of the present study show that Amir, by using various strategies, while reducing additional and unconventional expenses and increasing tax revenues, in addition to creating a balance between income and expenditure, added an amount to the treasury reserve. It should be noted that the government's expenditures exceeded the expenditures of 1255 AH with the establishment of the new military system and the increase in the number of military forces. Also, to compensate for the deficit or loss of land tax, the funds from the customs revenue were taken out of the Financial responsibility of the provincial governors and came under the direct supervision of the government.