Merchandise Exports by Commodity (Value, USD), 1956/57-1958/59_

Event_Log

1. 011955Second Seven-Year Plan launched; First Seven-Year PlanAssociation

   Why this link: Carpets were Iran's third-largest non-oil export earner in this window ($17.1m-19.5m/yr, 16.3-17.7% of non-oil exports, behind only raw cotton), captured here as the earliest REGISTERED chart data point in the carpet-export story. The much fuller and more dramatic arc of this narrative -- carpets rising to a $2.13bn peak in 1994 and collapsing to just $39.7m by 2024 (per Encyclopaedia Iranica CARPETS xii and multiple Iran International/Radio Farda reports) -- lives in data/processed/specialty_goods_series/carpet_exports_1960_1988.csv and carpet_exports_post1990.csv, which per that folder's own README and per iran_trade__cites_caviar_quota_trade_timeline_1998_2006's registry notes has NOT yet been promoted to its own chart_id in CHART_REGISTRY.csv. This row is offered as a placeholder anchor, not a real inflection-point finding.

   Caveat: Confidence deliberately low -- this is a scene-setting snapshot (3 flat years, no visible trend break) rather than a genuine data-driven correlation. The real carpet-collapse story is well documented to be MULTI-causal (synthetic-fiber and machine-made-rug competition from Turkey and elsewhere, changing Western consumer tastes away from traditional handwoven rugs, and sanctions-driven export-financing/banking difficulty especially post-2018) and should not be pinned on any single policy event once that fuller dataset is registered.

   Lag: n/a — snapshot, not an inflection