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The Middle East Oil Decade and Beyond: Essays in Political Economy, by Gad G. Gilbar. 123 pages, tables, figures, illustrations, index. London: Frank Cass, 1997. $45.00 (Cloth) ISBN 0-7146-4734-9

resisted British penetration by forming strategic alliances among each other and with the local governors. For example, they rendered largely ineffective the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1838 that granted to the British the right to collect import and export duties on trade to and from river and other ports in the region. Nevertheless, Fattah argues, the proliferation of such sources of transit fees and taxes provided an incentive to traders to conduct their trade in areas less subject to taxation, thereby explaining the origin of free trade in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Zubara (located in what is today Qatar). Together with the rise of pearling centered around Bahrain and the increasing importance of India as a market for both grains and Arabian horses, this regional free trade became the basis of growing prosperity in the region. Fattah credits several influences—such as the deepening indebtedness of the Ottoman Empire, the growing trade deficits of the region and the resulting outflow of monetary species, the disruption of the land routes through Arabia due to civil war, and the diversion of trading to the free port areas under the control of Britain—for allowing Britain to gain domination over trade and governance of the area. The British policy of free trade in grains made the export of grains in British boats to India much more profitable for Iraqi producers than highly taxed sales of grain to local and regional traders. The rising profitability of grain production in Iraq, in turn, was said to induce additional tribesmen to settle on newly irrigated lands. The development of these new cities, towns, and agricultural communities shows rather convincingly that, contrary to the traditional literature, where and when the development prospects were evident, capital and infrastructure were generally forthcoming. If the interpretations offered by Fattah hold up upon careful scrutiny, The Politics of Regional Trade will constitute an important contribution to our understanding of Iraq, Arabia, and the Gulf between 1750 and 1900.