Page 79 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

The making of Gulf port towns before oil 59

prominently in the pre-capitalist economies of mercantile systems, partic-
ularly across South East Asia, in the Gulf ports capitalist and labourer
were partners in an ‘unequal’ relationship as both shared an interest in
increasing the margin of profit. 48 Moreover, indebtedness carried little or
no social stigma as suggested by the British anthropologist Peter
Lienhardt who in the 1950s gathered oral testimonies on the conditions
of the pearling communities of Trucial Oman: ‘[In the past] debt
restricted people’s freedom of action, tied them to their work, and laid
them open to exploitation. But, being endemic, it involved no disgrace.
Nor could a creditor practice the level of extortion and emotional perse-
cution possible to English moneylenders in the last century.’ 49 One sig-
nificant implication of the advance system was that the cycle of debt
prevented the accumulation of capital, thus severely restricting the social
mobility of pearl labourers as the largest productive sector of Gulf ports.
The survival of the pearling industry as a local enterprise explains the
continuity of the socio-political organisation of port settlements in the
nineteenth century. It also suggests that the indigenous economy of
the Gulf did not collapse under the pressure of European trade, contrary
to what is generally assumed for many areas of the Middle East. 50
Although some local merchants started to work as agents and employees
of European shipping companies, local shipping maintained a solid profile
sustained by the pearl trade with India and by the exchange of goods for
local consumption with Iran, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. The con-
tinuation of intercoastal trade was also assisted by the size of British ships,
which could approach only large harbours. Native shipping was also able
to support the bulk of regional trade in the late 1920s and early 1930s,
when the collapse of pearling and the depression in the world markets
restrained the circulation of international commodities. 51 The resilience
of the Gulf’s traditional maritime economy is also further testimony to the
protectionist policies adopted by the Government of India in order to
ensure the political stability of the Gulf ports. In keeping the pearling
industry firmly under tribal control, imperial policies buttressed the posi-
tion of urban rulers, cementing their alliance with tribal entrepreneurs.

48
A. Reid, ‘The Organisation of Production in the Pre-Colonial South Eastern Asian Port
City’ in Broeze (ed.), Brides of the Sea, pp. 54–74 (pp. 61–4).
49
Lienhardt, Shaikhdoms of Eastern Arabia, p. 152.
50
This is in contrast for instance with developments in Iraq where Fattah concludes that by
1900 ‘the autonomy of regional merchants had been shattered’. Fattah, The Politics of
Regional Trade, p. 207.
51
For an analysis of the political implications on indigenous trade following the establish-
ment of British monopolies see al-Naqeeb, Society and State, pp. 51–78; Crystal, Oil and
Politics in the Gulf, p. 26.