Keshavarzian 221position in the larger economy. These socioeconomic transformations,
however, are decades old; they do not explain the bazaar’s specific trans-
formation in the 1980s and 1990s. To have a more precise understanding
of the shift from concentrated to dispersed value chains we must investi-
gate postrevolutionary urban and commercial policies and how they have
directed and accelerated the relocation of the bazaar in the urban space
and economy. Specifically, changes in zoning laws and the creation of free
trade zones drove commercial activities away from the old central core of
the city and attracted commerce to more distant locales. Within the first
year of the revolution, the government enacted a new law aimed at reduc-
ing traffic.^51 A 22-square-kilometer zone was created in central Tehran,
including the Tehran bazaar and its surroundings, which required special
permits for automobiles and limited the hours during which trucks could
legally operate. This new system unintentionally made wholesale and
retail trade more difficult and expensive. As a result, many wholesalers
established new branches outside of the bazaar area or relocated entirely
in areas outside the central core. For instance, to ensure easier movement
of goods and access to the airport and roads to the provinces, several car-
pet exporters recently moved their warehouses and carpet washing facili-
ties to the periphery of the city.^52 In recent years new commercial centers,
such as the new china and glassware conglomeration of Shoush Square,
have emerged outside of the traffic restriction zone and the Tehran bazaar,
decomposing the bazaaris’ locational monopoly. Despite complaints by
guildsmen,^53 these trends have only been reinforced by other urban poli-
cies, such as the building of shopping centers by the municipality and
the financing of various fruit and vegetable markets and chain stores as a
means to generate income for the cash-strapped local government.^54
e Tehran bazaar’s position in the economy has been relocated by Th
another important policy initiative associated with the 1990s—the estab-
lishment of a host of free trade zones, special economic zones, and bor-
der markets in the geographic periphery of Iran. The historic centrality
of Tehran and the bazaar in commercial flows has been undermined as
capital is attracted to these new enclaves. Commercial activities increas-
ingly rest on transnational circuits operating via three free trade zones in
the Persian Gulf (Qeshm, Kish, and Chabahar), which include roughly
fifty border markets and numerous border cooperatives and specially