Page 216 - UAE Truncal States

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

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