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Restructuring city and state 141

the stiff competition of the baladiyyah for the control of imports at the
point of entry into Bahrain. This contest reflected the unclear division
of responsibilities between the new government departments and the
municipality which typified the early stages of the reforms. Officials
from both sides enforced lengthy inspections in the harbour causing
considerable delay to the delivery of perishable goods to Manama’s ware-
houses. In the wake of the pearl crisis in 1929 municipal collectors started
to levy their own import duties on tobacco from Oman in order to finance
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the activities of the baladiyyah in the inner city. Only during World
War II did the authority of the municipality in matters of imports become
firmly subordinated to that of the Directorate of Customs. As provisions
started to be rationed, municipal officials took charge of the distribution of
rice, sugar and other essential commodities to authorised shops under the
supervision of the Customs Director who was appointed by Belgrave as
Food Controller. 71
One of the most notable developments of the early municipal era was
the gradual decrease of the influence of Indian merchants and whole-
salers, the traditional British protégés. This partly reflected the demise of
the British agency as the supreme arbiter in trade disputes. Between 1926
and 1929, for instance, a group of Indian rice importers and textile dealers
were fined several times by the municipality and by the Directorate of
Customs for having marketed rice, cotton cloth and silk textiles short of
the weight and length advertised. Although the agency made consistent
efforts to contest municipal legislation which affected its protégés, by
1929 Indian merchants were advised to resort to the courts to overturn
the decisions of the majlis. 72 The consolidation of a powerful lobby of
Arab and Persian merchants with connections to the municipality under-
mined further the position of the Indian trading community. Although the
inflow of goods from India continued to dominate Manama’s and
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Bahrain’s import economy, it was only in 1940 that Manama’s Indians

70
Belgrave to Political Agent Bahrain, 17 October 1929, and Director of Customs to
Political Agent Bahrain, 5 November 1929, R/15/2/1208 IOR; I‘lan Hukumah al-
Bahrayn – Da’irah al-Gumruk, 26 Jumada al-Ula 1348/29 October 1929, R/15/2/1228
IOR.
71
al-Tajir, Bahrain, 1920–1945, pp. 252–6.
72
R/15/2/1218 IOR: Secretary of Manama Municipality to Political Agent Bahrain, 25
Rajab 1347/12 August 1928; minutes by Belgrave, 4 January 1929; I‘lan Baladiyyah al-
Manamah, n. 15 and 16 of 1347 and n. 1 of 1348; Political Agent Bahrain to Belgrave, 1
July 1929; Belgrave to Political Agent Bahrain, 8 July 1929; petition by Indian merchants
to Political Agent Bahrain, 31 July 1929; Political Agent Bahrain to President of Manama
Municipality, 1 Rabi‘ al- Awwal 1348/7 August 1929.
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In 1929–30 72.5 per cent of Bahrain’s imports came from India. Rumaihi, Bahrain, p. 61.