Page 216 - UAE Truncal States
P. 216

The Traditional Economics

         sailing vessels belonging to the ports or the Trucial Coast. Some went
         lo India, but many made use of the entrepot trade of nearer ports
         such as Bahrain and Lingah. Dubai was already then leading in the
         number of trading vessels: out of the 90 vessels whose home port was
         somewhere on the Trucial Coast, 20 belonged to Dubai, 15 to Ra’s al
         Khaimah, 18 to Sharjah town, 10 to Abu Dhabi.40
           Only some of these sailing vessels were of the type called baghlah,
         which had a capacity of 80 to 300 tons and a crew of 20 to 50 men. The
         majority of the vessels were sanbuk, a smaller sailing craft handled
         by a crew of 15 to 20 men. Most local craft could enter the shallow
         creeks, which were a feature of the principal ports of the coast, al
         least at high tide and beach inside to be offloaded. The largest sailing
         vessels or steamers had to be offloaded onto coastal craft in the
         roadstead a few kilometres offshore. This is why calls by European
         vessels were not worth their while, considering the small amount of
         carrying trade lo be had, particularly in view of the competition from
         the considerable number of local merchant vessels plying between
          the ports of the coast and the entrepot ports. But when Lingah lost its
          importance and Dubai took over as the distribution centre for
          imported goods on the Arabian Coast between Ru’us al Jibal and
          Qatar, it became a worthwhile proposition for the British India
          Steam Navigation Company to call regularly at Dubai. From 10 June
          1904 a steamer called every fortnight on its way up the Gulf, and if
          required called again on the return journey. In 1905-6, 34 British
          steamers called al Dubai, discharging a total load of over 70 thousand
          tons.
            Customs duties paid on imports were a major source of revenue for
          the Rulers of all the Trucial States. They were usually levied in two
          ways: 2 per cent for merchandise where the value could easily be
          assessed, such as the standard bags of dates or sacks (kls) of rice,
          and a flat rate for piece-goods which worked out at about 1-J per cent
          of the total value. Some of the imports landed by coastal craft were
          not taxed, because during the 19th century the only customs posts
          were at Sharjah town and Ra's al Khaimah town on the western coast
          of the Qasimi empire. The annual revenues collected at the turn of the
          century were about 8,000 Rupees in the case of Sharjah and 800
          Rupees in Ra’s al Khaimah.49
            An interesting aspect of imports into the Trucial States was the
          increase in the trade in weapons and ammunition, which assumed
          sizeable proportions towards the end of the 19th century. A rifle

                                                                  191
   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   221