Traditions of arranging and writing accounting books in the Qajar era

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student, History of Iran, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran. I. R. Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of History, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran. I. R. Iran

Abstract

Budget monitoring and control as one of the important pillars in budgeting was very important in the Qajar period. The Accounts Office is one of the most accessible financial offices from the Qajar period, the knowledge of which can shed light on the dark and unknown corners of Iran's finances, especially budgeting issues.
Purpose: The present study seeks to answer the question of how the structure, components, and content of the accounting office were organized and written in the Qajar era and what changes these components have had.
Method and Research Design / Approach: Data are collected and analyzed based on 46 documents in five archival centers.
Findings and Conclusion: The structure of accounting is composed of four parts, mofrade, men-zalek, al-baqi-al-fazel, and ezafat. Mofrade in the sense means income and thus menzalek expenses.  If the amount of deductible is less than the mofrade, it is written "al-baqi", and if the amount of deductible is more than the mofrade, it is written "al-fazael", which means budget deficit; but if it is less in criticism and more in sex or vice versa, then "al-baqi bemafih- al-ziyade". Mofrade, in terms of form, consists of the first two letters, the second letter, and four »dafe«.  The harfe one is for this year's incomes and the harfe two is for previous years' incomes. The first harf is divided into two parts: principal and additional tax, which means continuous and non-continuous tax, respectively. Ezafat is also divided into continuous and non-continuous parts in the form of financial bills. The additions to the document also had a regular and coherent structure, but in the Mozaffari period, it changed in form compared to the Nasiri period; In this way, the royal seal and symbol were removed at the top of the first page of the booklet; Connections, which are somehow the title of each page, were not common in the accounts of the Qajar period.

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References

English Translation of References
Documents
Unpublished documents
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Manuscripts
Ketābxāne-ye Malek (Malek Library)
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History

  • Receive Date: 19 December 2020
  • Revise Date: 23 December 2020
  • Accept Date: 04 April 2021

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