IOR/L/PS/12/3465

Reports on the general economic situation in Persia [Iran] as reported by staff at the British Legation in Tehran. The file includes: newspaper cuttings and typewritten extracts of articles in the Persian press (chiefly Le Messager de Teheran); budget statements issued by the Persian Government; statements of accounts published by the Banque Nationale de Perse (also referred to as the National Bank of Persia, later the Bank Melli Iran); reports from the Persian Board of Currency Control.

Subjects of note covered by the volume include: the transfer of the monopoly of banknote issue from the Imperial Bank of Persia to the Banque Nationale de Perse; the Persian Government’s decision to change from a silver to gold standard in 1930, and the effect in Persia of Britain’s abandonment of the gold standard in the following year; the Persian Government’s appointment of Belgian financial experts to the Persian Treasury; a crisis in Persian currency exchange regulation, the Persian Government’s monopoly control on foreign trade, and the impact of both upon British subjects and commercial concerns in Persia; annual budgets of the Persian Government; the affairs of the National Bank of Persia during 1932-33, including allegations of financial wrongdoing by its German directors, Otto Vogel and Kurt Lindenblatt; Lindenblatt’s conviction and imprisonment in Persia; the appointment of another German, Walter Horschitz-Horst, as director of the bank; financial arrangements of the Trans-Persian Railway.

The file’s principal correspondents are: HM’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Robert Henry Clive, Reginald Hervey Hoare; the Commercial Secretary at the British Legation in Tehran, Eric Ralph Lingeman.

The volume includes a large number of items in French, including newspaper cuttings and reports and correspondence issued by the Persian Government and Banque Nationale de Perse.

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.