Labor and Industry in Iran, 1850-1941 - Paperbackby Willem M. Floor (Author) In the nineteenth century, Iranian reformers wanted to create an independent, modern state that could stand on its own feet. However, constrained by foreign influence, ignorance, and inexperience, their efforts at industrialization were an expensive failure. When a modernizing regime took over the country in 1925, it began the most interesting example of a state directed effort at economic organization in the Middle East.