Pearling and Political Power in the Trucial States, 1850–1930: Debts, Taxes, and Politics

Abstract

The political ramifications of debt are often ignored in favor of looking at the economic problems or social ills that accompanied the accumulation of debts. This article examines how political power and debt are intertwined, pushing the discussion beyond a simple dichotomy of debt being good or bad. Subjects' accumulated debts could both harm and help a ruler cement his own power or destabilize a neighbor's. Pearling provides an excellent lens through which to understand the necessity of debt. Using the examples of tax collection and debt absconding, this article explores the ways that debts affected rulers' abilities to rule effectively and how debt became a pawn in the accumulation of authority in the Trucial States (now the United Arab Emirates) during 1850–1930.

Keywords:

• pearling
• commodity
• debt
• Trucial States
• Trucial Coast
• United Arab Emirates
• UAE
• taxes

Notes

1 Pelly, “Circular”, 16 Sept. 1868, reprinted in Burdett (ed.), Records of the Persian Gulf Pearl Fisheries 1: 1857–1914 (1995), p. 13.

2 Govt of India, “Report of the External Commerce of Bombay for the Year 1864–65” 1865, IOR: V/17/291, p. 46, British Library, London; Govt of India, “Report on the Administration of the Political Residency, Persian Gulf”, Tables R–W, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 1: 1873–79 (1873–4, reprinted 1986), pp. 67–72.

3 Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1896–1897”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 4: 1890–1899 (1986).

4 Zahlan, The Origins of the United Arab Emirates: A Political and Social History of the Trucial States (1978), pp. 163, 230 (fn. 2); Al-Shāmsī, Iqti ṣād al-Imārāt Qabl 1971 (1995), p. 14; Samūr, T ārīkh Sāḥel ʿOmān al-Siyāsī fī Nuṣf al-Qarn al-Tāsʿ ʿAshr (1985), pp. 24–5.

5 Davidson, Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond (2009), p. 7; Wilkinson, “Traditional Concepts of Territory in South East Arabia”, The Geographical Journal 149 (1983), pp. 310–12; Al-Ḥumaīrī, Daulat al-Imārāt al-ʿArabīyya al-Mutaḥida: Rijāl al-Ghaūṣ wa al-Lualua (2009); Abū Shihāb, “Al-Ghaūṣ Shʿarān 3-5”, Tur āth, Feb. 2001, pp. 14–15.

6 Lorimer, Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman, and Central Arabia 3: Historical, ed. Birdwood (1915; reprinted, 1986), pp. 2220–1; Heard-Bey, Trucial States to United Arab Emirates: A Society in Transition (2004); Carter, Sea of Pearls: Seven Thousand Years of the Industry that Shaped the Gulf (2012).

7 Kunz and Stevenson, The Book of the Pearl: The History, Art, Science, and Industry of the Queen of Gems (1908), pp. 30–1, 87; Carter, Sea of Pearls, pp. 161–80.

8 There is a type of pearls called majhoola that grow attached to the mollusk's shell. These need to be peeled by experts to uncover their beauty [Donkin, Beyond Price: Pearls and Pearl-Fishing: Origins to the Age of Discoveries (1998), p. 83].

9 Kunz and Stevenson, Book of the Pearl, p. 330.

10 Al-Ḥumaīrī, Daulat al-Imārāt al-ʿArabīyya al-Mutaḥida, pp. 47–53.

11 Durand, “Appendix A: Notes on the Pearl Fisheries of the Persian Gulf” reprinted in Burdett (ed.) Records of the Persian Gulf Pearl Fisheries 1: 1857–1914 (1995), pp. 71, 74; Mockler, “Note on the Weights and Measures employed in the Pearl Trade of the Gulf” in “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for 1885–1886”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 2: 1879–1883 (1986), pp. 110–16; Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, pp. 2237–8.

12 See the Persian Gulf Administration Reports for brief synopses of the various local conditions that limited the value of pearls. See also, Hopper, The African Presence in Arabia: Slavery, The World Economy, and the African Diaspora in Eastern Arabia, 1840–1940, PhD diss. (2006), p. 125; Al-Shamsī, Iqtiṣād al-Imārāt Qabl 1971, p. 92.

13 Hennell to Willoughby, 24 Mar. 1841, IOR: R/15/1/94, pp. 11–12, British Library, London; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1879–1880”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 2: 1879–1883 (1986), p. 4; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1883–1884”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 3: 1883–1890 (1986), p. 38; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1893–1894”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 4: 1890–1899 (1986), p. 6; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1894–1895”, ibid., p. 6; Prideaux, “Report on Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year 1907” reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 5: 1899–1905 (1987), p. 1; Loch, “Report on Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year Ending 31st 1917”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 5: 1899–1905 (1986), p. 1.

14 Govt of India, “Admin. Report … 1883–1884”, p. 30.

15 Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1882–1883”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 2: 1879–1883 (1986), p. 21; Govt of India, “Admin. Report … 1883–1884”, p. 30.

16 Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1880–1881”, reprinted Persian Gulf Administration Reports 2: 1879–1883 (1986), p. 4; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1881–1882”, ibid., p.160; Govt of India, “Admin. Report … 1882–1883” reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 5: 1899–1905 (1986); Govt of India, “Admin. Report … 1883–1884”, ibid., p. 30; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1900–1901”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 5: 1899–1905 (1986), p. 23; Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, p. 2252.

17 Govt of India, “Admin. Report … 1900–1901”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 5: 1899–1905 (1986), p. 23; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1901–1902”, ibid., p. 22; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1903–1904”, ibid., p. 24; Abdullah, The United Arab Emirates: A Modern History (1978), p. 104.

18 Al-Fahim, From Rags to Riches, A Story of Abu Dhabi (1995), p. 32.

19 Abdullah, The UAE, p. 104; Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, p. 244; Davidson, Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success (2008), pp. 67–91.

20 The record is Rs.10,000,000 set in 1896–7. Govt of India “Admin. Report … 1896–1897”, p. 7; “Admin. Report … 1900–1901”, p. 23; “Admin. Report … 1901–1902”, p. 2; “Admin. Report … 1903–1904”, p. 24; Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, p. 2252.

21 Unfortunately, the records of pearl revenues from the Trucial States after 1905 for the lower Gulf do not exist. Instead, there are narrative accounts of this depression.

22 Prideaux, “1907”, p. 1.

23 Ibid.

24 See the Persian Gulf Administration Reports 1873–1947 (1986), for information on date exports.

25 Persian Gulf Trade Reports 1905–1940 1: Bahrain 1905–1925 and 2: Bahrain 1925–1940 (1987).

26 Wheeler and Thuysbaert, Telling Tales: An Oral History of Dubai (2006), pp. 58, 72; Hay, The Persian Gulf States (1959), p. 51; Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, pp. 221–2.

27 Mackenzie, “Report on Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year 1908”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Trade Reports 1: Bahrain 1905–1925 (1987), p. 1; Lorimer, “Report on Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year 1911”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Trade Reports 1: Bahrain 1905–1925 (1987), ibid., p. 6; Fowle, “Report on Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year Ending 31st 1916”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Trade Reports 1: Bahrain 1905–1925 (1987), ibid., p. 1; Daly “Report on Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Years Ending 31st 1924”, ibid., p. 1; Barrett, “Report on the Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year Ending 31st March 1927”,reprinted in Persian Gulf Trade Reports 2: Bahrain 1925–1940 (1987), p. 1; Worth, “Report on Economic and Trade Conditions on the Bahrain Islands for the Year 1933–34”, ibid., pp. 1–2; Cole, “Report on the Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year Ending 31st March 1935”, ibid., p. 1; Prior, “Report on the Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year Ending 31st March 1930”, Persian Gulf Trade Reports 1: Bahrain 1905–1925, ibid., p. 1; Wakefield, “Amendments to Parts I and II of Mr. Wakefield's Report on Economic and Trade Conditions in the Bahrein Islands for the Year Ended 31^st March, 1942”, ibid., p. 1.

28 Al–Fahim, From Rags to Riches, pp. 23–4, ʿAbd al-Rahman, “Riḥlāt ʿala al-Lualua Min (al-Madda) Illa (al-Qufāl) 2”, Tur āth, Sept. 2000, p. 70; ʿAbd al-Rahman “Abṭāl Riḥlāt al-Ghaūṣ ʿala al-Lualua min al-Madda illa al-Qufāl: Al-Sīb wa al-Raḍeef wa al-Tabāb”, Tur āth, Dec. 2000, pp. 46–9.

29 Durand, “Appendix A”, p. 65.

30 Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, pp. 2232–3.

31 Ibid., p. 2233.

32 Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, p. 209; Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, pp. 2286–7.

33 Barrett, “Report on the Trade of the Bahrein Islands for the Year Ending 31st March 1928”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Trade Reports 2: Bahrain 1925–1940 (1987), p. 2.

34 Al-Shāmsī, “Mihnat al-Ghaūṣ fī al-aImārāt”, Majalat al-Fan wa al-Tur āth al-Shʿa'bī, June 1997, p. 39.

35 Al-Hamūr, Min Ad āb al-Ghaūṣ bi-Minṭiqat al-Khalīj al-ʿArabī (1990), p. 11; Al-ʿOtaība, Iqti ṣadāt Abū Zabī Qadīmān wa Hadīthān (1971), p. 23.

36 Al-Shāmsī, “Mihnat al-Ghaūṣ”, p. 38.

37 Al-ʿOtaība, Iqti ṣadāt Abū Zabī, p. 23.

38 Al-Shāmsī “Mihnat al-Ghaūṣ ”, p. 38.

39 There are many categories of people that I am including here as merchants, because the tightness of buying was felt by all levels. Prideaux, “1907”, p. 1.

40 Mackenzie, “1908” (1987), p. 1.

41 Abdullah, The UAE, p. 105; “Arab States: Monthly Summary” for July 1929, Mar. and July 1930, IOR: R/15/1/14/49, British Library, London.

42 Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, p. 219; Abdullah, The UAE, p. 105.

43 Al-Shamsī, “Mihnat al-Ghaūṣ ”, p. 98.

44 Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, pp. 2284–5.

45 Billecocq, The Emirates: The Fabulous History of the Pearl Coast (1995), pp. 136–7.

46 Unfortunately, these were recorded in two different forms of currency, the rupee and the Maria Teresa dollar (MT$) and there are few equivalency charts between the two.

47 Durand, “Appendix A” p. 63.

48 Ibid.

49 Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, p. 2286.

50 Ibid., p. 2286.

51 Ibid.

52 Ibid., pp. 2284, 2286.

53 Ibid., pp. 2284–7. Dates from footnote on p. 2220.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid., pp. 2286–7.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid., pp. 2284–5.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid., pp. 2284–5.

60 Ibid., pp. 2286–7.

61 Durand, “Appendix A”, p. 63.

62 Davidson, Abu Dhabi, p. 18; Maitra and al-Hajji, Qasr al Hosn: The History of the Rulers of Abu Dhabi 1793–1966 (2001), p. 195; Ross to Sec. to the Govt of India, 8 Dec. 1879, IOR: R/15/1/185, p. 225, British Library, London.

63 Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, p. 2287.

64 Ibid., pp. 2284–7.

65 Al-Sayegh, “Merchants’ Role in a Changing Society: The Case of Dubai, 1900–90”, Middle Eastern Studies 34 (1998), p. 95.

66 Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, pp. 255–7.

67 Davidson, The United Arab Emirates: A Study in Survival (2005), p. 21.

68 Aitchison, Collection of Treaties, Engagements and Sanads Relating to India and Neighbouring Countries (1929–33), pp. 249–51.

69 “Perpetual Maritime Truce” 4 May, 1853, reprinted in Hawley, The Trucial States (1970), pp. 317–18.

70 Ibid., p. 318; Onley, The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, and the British in the Nineteeth-Century Gulf (2007), pp. 48–52, 55, 63, 71, 86, 93, 101, 108, 111, 114, 129, 205, 211, 214–15, 221, 232–7, 248, 253,

71 The Residency Agent was also referred to as the “Native Agent” in many documents. Carless to Political Resident, 6 Sept. 1848, ADM127/52, box 158, letter no. 2 of 1848, TNA, London.

72 Hennell to Malet, 30 Jan. 1850, IOR: R/15/1/120, p. 10, British Library, London.

73 Ibid., p. 8.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid., pp. 8–10.

76 Residency Agent, Sharjah to Political Resident, 25 May 1879, IOR: R/15/1/185 p. 51, British Library, London; Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, pp. 211–14.

77 Ruler [Chief] of Ajman to Residency Agent, Sharjah, 2 Dec. 1878, IOR: R/15/1/185, p. 5, British Library, London; Ruler [Chief] of Ajman to Residency Agent, Sharjah, 2 Dec 1878, ibid., p. 12.

78 Ruler [Chief] of Ajman to Residency Agent, Sharjah, 2 Dec. 1878, ibid.

79 Note: there are three page 44s in this file. Ruler [Chief] of Umm al-Quwain to Residency Agent, Sharjah, 23 Jamadi al Awal 1296, ibid., p. 44, British Library, London.

80 Ross to Ruler [Chief] of Ajman, 31 Dec. 1878, ibid., pp. 15–16, British Library, London; Col. Pelly, “Circular”, 16 Sept. 1868, ibid., p. 18; Residency Agent, Sharjah to Political Resident, 5 May 1879, ibid., p. 23.

81 Ahmed bin Abdullah (Ruler / Chief of Umm al-Quwain) to Residency Agent, Sharjah, 10 May 1879, ibid., p. 35, British Library, London.

82 Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1877–1878”, reprinted in Persian Gulf Administration Reports 2: 1879–1883 (1986), p. 4; Govt of India, “Administration Report of the Persian Gulf Political Residency and Muscat Political Agency for the Year 1878–1879”, ibid., p. 4.

83 Govt of India, “1879–1880”, p. 4; “Excerpt From Reports on the Acceleration of Piracy, Especially Affecting the Pearling Fleet, 1887; Statement by Residents of Bahrain and Lingah, but Mainly Concerning Qatar Piracies, with Cases Numbers 3, 4, 5 and Correspondence from the Residency Agent, Bahrain, 28, 25, 30 Aug., 1 Sept., 22 Aug. 1998 [FO 78/5108]”, reprinted in Burdett (ed.) Records of the Persian Gulf Pearl Fisheries 1: 1857–1914 (1995), p. 110.

84 Residency Agent, Sharjah to Ruler [Chief] of Ajman, 21 Zukaja 1295, IOR: R/15/1/185, p. 38, British Library, London.

85 “Mutual Agreement Entered into by the Trucial Coast Rulers about Absconding Debtors”, 24 June 1879, reprinted in Hawley, The Trucial States, pp. 319–20.

86 Ibid., p. 320.

87 Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, p. 212; Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, p. 2243.

88 Lorimer, Gazetteer 3: Historical, p. 2284.

89 After 1905, Britain's Political Agent in Bahrain became responsible for intelligence from the Trucial Coast and information about these types of contests becomes scarce in the Administration Reports.

90 Heard-Bey, From Trucial States to UAE, p. 203–4.