2026-06-27 –, Room 201 (Seats 42)
Economic crisis management is a critical governmental strategy during periods of profound upheaval, such as the Second World War. Under such extreme conditions, states that implement timely and appropriate policies can mitigate the severity of crises and limit the expansion of their negative repercussions across economic, social, and political spheres.
As a global conflict, World War II exerted influence on all nations—whether belligerent, occupied, or neutral. Consequently, a comparative examination of the diverse crisis-management measures adopted by governments worldwide during this tumultuous period constitutes a foundational area of historical inquiry. Certain policies, such as rationing, proved effective in specific national contexts, successfully stabilizing situations and preventing further deterioration (the United Kingdom serves as a notable example). In other national settings, however, identical or similar policies not only failed to resolve the crises but exacerbated existing economic and social distress.
Focusing on Iran as a case study during World War II, this research seeks to address the following questions:
- What specific economic policies and measures were employed by successive Iranian governments to control the crisis during the war?
- How did the implementation of these measures ultimately influence the trajectory and outcome of crisis management efforts in Iran?
The central hypothesis of this study posits that the key interventionist policies enacted by the Iranian state—including:
· The rationing of essential commodities
· The establishment of state monopolies over foreign trade
· Specific fiscal and taxation measures
· The expansion of the money supply (issuance of banknotes)
· Legislation against hoarding and smuggling
—collectively failed to produce a stabilizing effect on Iran's wartime economy. Instead, it is argued that these measures contributed significantly to inflationary pressures, acute commodity shortages, price hyperinflation, and, in certain regions and periods, conditions of famine.
Economic Crisis Management, World War II, Iran, Government Intervention, Rationing, State Monopoly, Inflation, Wartime Economy, Hoarding, Smuggling, Economic Policy, Historical Analysis
Marziye Mansoury is a PhD candidate in History at Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. Her research spans the Second World War through the early Cold War (1941–1961), focusing on the political economy of the Allied occupation of Iran, the engineering of scarcity of essential goods through state monopolies and border closures, and the social consequences of fiscal policy. She has published several peer-reviewed articles on Iran's wartime economic crises, examining state monopoly policies, the performance of the administrative apparatus, and the lived experience of economic hardship. Her current paper, "Closed Borders, Closed Economies: The Paradox of State Monopoly and Wartime Shortages in Occupied Iran, 1941–1946," introduces the concept of the "double closure" – external borders sealed by foreign armies and internal economic borders sealed by unaccountable state monopolies – as a framework for understanding how manageable supply shocks can accelerate societal collapse.
Central to her work is the conviction that economic history is inseparable from social history. Budgetary documents, as economic evidence of resource distribution, reveal how states prioritize – or fail to prioritize – the welfare of their citizens. By studying the lived experience of past economic crises, she argues, we can extract policy lessons for the present: effective crisis management depends not on abstract models but on context-specific strategies that align with each society's institutional and social realities. Her ongoing research extends this analysis into the post-war period (up to 1961), examining how wartime fiscal structures shaped Iran's development trajectory.