Page 295 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Seven
neighbouring Muslim countries, from India, from Europe, and from
the USA. Consequently their demands on the Slate and on society
have changed: no longer do the men live as bachelors in a
construction-camp cared for by their employer; they now have their
families with them in flats or in villas, and they require the services of
a modern State.55
Throughout the period of its pre-industrial development, which
may be considered to end with the decision to build the tanker dry
dock in 19 73,50 the economic tendencies and the social changes
which have characterised the period since the turn of the century in
the towns of the Trucial States are seen most clearly in Dubai. The
impact of the expansion as well as of the decline of the pearling
industry was most pronounced in this City State without its own
tribal hinterland to fall back on. The early business activities in the
area helped Dubai to have a head start over the neighbouring
shaikhdoms, and the move of the British Political Agent for the
Trucial States to Dubai both directly and indirectly helped it to
embark on planning a new economic order, and on setting up social
services, which were to be for some time an example to the other
shaikhdoms.

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