This research project reveals new, unique perspectives on German economic expansionism in the first decade of twentieth century by examining the struggles of labourers in the factories of Persische Teppich Gesellschaft (PETAG) established across Iran in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This German initiative, starting in Berlin in 1910, which began as a regional one but progressed to become global, was responsible for building factories in the Persian cities of Tabriz, Sultanabad, Kashan, Mashhad, and Kirman. The company thus intervened in Persia’s longstanding tradition of carpet making, exploiting cheap human resources (including the labour of women and children); extracting natural resources; building local and global networks; and expanding the local and global markets. The project takes a close look, in particular, at the establishment of the company’s first foreign factory in Tabriz—a city of political, geographical and historical significance, situated in the north-west of Iran.