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122 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

7 The Municipality of Manama festooned with British flags on the
occasion of the coronation of King George VI, 1937

residents, the imposition of new legal systems and the reorganisation of
port towns and cities were the hallmark of European expansion overseas in
the nineteenth century (see Figure 7). 21 Developments in Bahrain are
clear evidence of the exponential growth of British interests in the Persian
Gulf and of the importance attached by both India and London to the
safeguard of the loose capitulary rights exercised by the British agents in
Manama, who often offered their services to Indian traders around the
Gulf.
As discussed in the previous chapter, in the last quarter of the nine-
teenth century native agents were not in a position to enforce de jure the
rulings of the courts they presided over in Manama, as the treaties
negotiated by the Indian authorities with the rulers of Bahrain did not
contain specific provisions with regard to the exercise of extraterritoriality.
The Treaty of 1861, for instance, allowed the native agent to settle
commercial disputes which involved British subjects and dependants,

21
For extraterritoriality and municipal government in treaty port systems see Murphey, ‘On
the Evolution of the Port City’, p. 240.