Page 236 - UAE Truncal States

Social Aspects of Traditional Economy
were slill bought and sold in the main markets although their
importation had already been outlawed in the 1870s.ltt
Some of the wealthy Arab pearl merchants who owned several
boats usually also had a number of slaves who would make up the
majority of the divers on their pearling boats, while the nawakhidah
and other members of the crew would be hired hands. The slave
divers of a boat owner in town did not usually have arduous tasks to
perform during the off-season, but they would often help with the
repair of the boats while being housed and fed with their masters’
family. In many of the less well-off families the one domestic slave
would help like any member of the family in the date garden or with
the fishing nets, to cut firewood, look after the animals, or work in the
house during the winter; during the summer he would be sent to join
a pearling crew. His master was entitled to the slave’s share of the
catch. However, since he was part of the master’s household this
arrangement was often not considered in the least unfair, and it
frequently continued when the liberated slave remained as a servant
in his master’s family.19

Absconding debtors
People who carried debts over from one season to another eventually
found it necessary to borrow money from a number of lenders. When
debts became very large and the creditors combined their efforts to
get their money back, usually by going to the Ruler, the temptation
for the debtor to abscond was great. Since most of the ports of the
Trucial Coast are only a few miles apart, it was easy for someone who
could see that trouble was brewing to take whatever cash he had left
to another port where he could reside with a relative and start up
again as nukhada or diver or musaqqcim. This practice, together with
emigration in order to avoid taxes, was one of the most frequent
causes of friction and open warfare between the shaikhs of Trucial
Oman. Therefore when the benefits of the British-supervised ban on
war at sea had been enjoyed for several decades after the Treaty of
Peace in Perpetuity of 1853, the detrimental effects on the peace
between shaikhdoms when absconding debtors were pursued over
land became obvious. Because the pearling industry became increas­
ingly based on credit in all the ports of the Trucial States, the Rulers
themselves felt the necessity to come to a common understanding
over the problem of absconding debtors. This move was encouraged

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