Imperial Bank of Persia
The Imperial Bank of Persia ( Bank-e Shahi ) was a bank established in Iran on January 30, 1889. The bank's share capital was £ 1 million .
The bank had received a monopoly concession from Naser al-Din Shah to issue Persian banknotes and therefore fulfilled the function of an Iranian national bank , although it was entirely British-owned . The management of the bank was also entirely in British hands. The banking license was granted for 60 years. Muzaffar ad-Din Shah received a loan of £ 40,000 in return for the concession. The bank was founded after a concession granted by Naser al-Din Shah to Baron Julius Reuter in 1872 , which included the establishment of a bank, could not be realized due to lack of funds.
The business activities of the bank extended to the entire national territory of Iran. The bank had 23 branches in Iran and thus had control of the local money market in its hands. The bank also had smaller branches in Iraq, Bombay and London. The Imperial Bank of Persia also processed the extensive foreign loans that Great Britain granted to Muzaffar ad-Din Shah and later to the Iranian state. In addition, the bank granted loans for trade, craft and industry, especially mining.
It was only when Reza Shah took over the reign that the Imperial Bank of Persia lost its function as a national bank. Under Reza Shah, a national bank owned by the Iranian state ( Bank Melli ) was founded in 1927 . In 1931 she lost the privilege of printing the Iranian banknotes. From then on, this task was taken over by Bank Melli.
The Imperial Bank of Persia was the third major company alongside the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) founded in 1909 and the Indo-European Telegraph Company, which was founded in 1868 by the British Siemens Company, a Siemens subsidiary and whose telegraph lines ran through Iran economic investment by the British who dominated Iran's economic development for a long time.
After losing its role as the Iranian national bank, it was renamed the British Bank of Middle East (BBME). In 1959, the BBME was acquired by the HSBC . The bank has long since ceased operating in Iran.
After the Iranian Revolution , the bank gained fame again for the fact that Khomeini's great-grandfather , Jajal, was employed as a porter and security guard at the bank's branch in Bombay . Jajal was a Hindu at the time . As the bank mainly dealt with Muslim business people, management advised Jajal to become a Muslim , which Jajal did. From that time on he called himself Hamed. After Hamed was slain in clashes between Muslims and Hindus, his son Ahmad took over the post at the Imperial Bank of Persia. From Bombay he was transferred to the Bushehr branch and later to Najaf . In Najaf, Ahmad Hindi, Khomeini's grandfather, left the Imperial Bank and became the bodyguard of Mirza Mohammad Hassan Shirazi .
See also
literature
- Frances Bostock, Geoffrey Jones: Planning and Power in Iran. Ebtehaj and economic development under the Shah. Frank Cass and Co., London 1989, ISBN 0-7146-3338-0 , p. 19.
- Mehdi Parvizi Amineh: The Global Capitalist Expansion and Iran. A study of the Iranian political economy (1500–1980). Lit-Verlag, Münster et al. 1999, ISBN 3-8258-4440-4 , p. 113 ( political science 62).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ M. Mohid: Atash Biaran-e Douzakh. Iranians Publication. London 2009. pp. 6f. (in Farsi)