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The External Influences
        tribal confederations dominated for example by the Bani Yas or the
        Qawasim. The inevitable British preoccupation with the maritime
        Rulers affected the natural balance between the tribal powers on the
        coast and those in the hinterland. Because the affairs of the Buraimi
        area, the Hajar mountains, and Inner Oman came to the attention of
        the British authorities usually by hearsay through the Agent in
        Sharjah and the representative in Muscat, they were generally
        considered to be of little consequence. Eventually this attitude also
        became locally adopted to the extent that both parties to the treaties,
        concluded at the end of the 19lh century and during the first decades
        of the 20th century, easily kept up the pretence that a coastal Ruler
        had authority over all the territory that lay between his coastal
        stronghold and the land considered to be under the sovereignly of the
        next coastal Ruler, or even of the Sultan in Muscat. Thus it was as
        much due to the deliberate British strengthening of the coastal rulers
        as to the pull of the growing economic opportunities which the Gulf’s
        pearling banks offered to the pastoral tribes of Eastern Arabia, that
        the traditional power struggle between nomadic and settled Arabs
        was decided in favour of the coastal settlements.


         British-inspired agreement concerning absconding
        debtors
        Much as the British Government benefited politically from the
        various agreements of the 19lh century, which allowed in later
        decades the imposition of political restrictions, the shaikhdoms on
         the coast also benefited substantially in economic and human terms,
        mainly because the increasingly important pearling industry could
         continue to grow and flourish with a minimum of disturbance. Such
        disturbances as there were almost always stemmed from the fleeing
         of debtors from one principality to another, where they were afforded
        asylum and could resume their work. Each Ruler wanted to have as
         many pearl merchants and pearling crews under his jurisdiction as
         possible, and, not being averse to turning to their own advantage the
         tribal customs of affording hospitality and refuge, they did not relish
         the idea of having to give up this conduct. But the disputes over
         runaway debtors became so numerous, adversely affecting every
         shaikhdom in turn, that the British Political Resident in Bushire, at
         that time Colonel Pelly, was eventually able to persuade the Rulers to
         sign an agreement for the mutual surrender of fraudulently abscond­
         ing debtors.
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