This study analyzes the pattern of transition from the precapitalist to the capitalist mode of production in Iran, and the specific character of capitalist development within the period of 1800-1978. The general theoretical framework around which the empirical and historical evidence from Iran is organized is based on three main theses. The first thesis is that, through the approach of the internationalization of capital, it is possible to cut across the formal distinction between

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... m' and 'productionism' and to bring elements of the two perspectives together. The approach of the internationalization of capital is based on the historic periodization of the development of the world market, distinguishing between the three circuits of capital (merchant, money and productive capitals), and specifying the dynamics of the successive internationalization of each circuit. Emphasis is placed on the forms of subsumption of labour by capital (formal and real subsumption of labour) and modes of surplus labour extraction (absolute and relative surplus-value appropriation) in identifying the dynamics of the internationalization of each circuit of capital. This approach allows us to take into account both exchange and production relations. While the sphere of production always plays a determinant role in shaping the centre/periphery relationship, the sphere of exchange is dominant in certain historical cojunctures. This is the capitalism in the periphery. Two structural features of the process of transition to capitalism in the periphery are focused upon in order to highlight the specificity of this process. First, drawing upon Marx's distinction between the 'first path' of transition, direct-producer/capitalist, and the 'second path', merchant/capitalist, it is argued that the internationalization of the circuit of merchant capital has blocked the 'first path' of transition to capitalism in the periphery, and has imposed the 'second path'. Second, internationalization of the circuits of money and productive capita [...]