Inducement and Coercion on the Trucial Coast: The First Oil Agreements

Abstract

This examination of the processes which culminated in the signing of the first oil concessions on the Trucial Coast constitutes a case study of the interaction between political and commercial interests within Britain's informal empire. It looks at the extent to which the aims and approaches of the British political authorities and of the oil company overlapped, coincided or conflicted, and at the strategies adopted by both in their dealings with the third element in the negotiations, the local rulers. In addition, the nature, extent and variations of local collaboration are analysed. Finally, the outcomes of the negotiations are reconsidered, and the possibility raised that a qualified form of collaboration might achieve satisfactory results for a local ruler, despite the overwhelming odds stacked against him.