Sinews of War and Trade. Laleh Khalili

      

      Sinews of War and Trade

      Sinews of War and Trade

       Shipping and Capitalismin the Arabian Peninsula

      Laleh Khalili

      First published by Verso 2020

      © Laleh Khalili 2020

      All rights reserved

      The moral rights of the author have been asserted

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       Verso

      UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG

      US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201

       versobooks.com

      Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

      ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-481-8

      ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-483-2 (UK EBK)

      ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-484-9 (US EBK)

       British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

       Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Khalili, Laleh, author.

      Title: Sinews of war and trade : shipping and capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula / Laleh Khalili.

      Description: London ; New York : Verso, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “On the map of global trade, China is now the factory of the world. A parade of ships full of raw commodities-iron ore, coal, oil-arrive in its ports, and fleets of container ships leave with manufactured goods in all directions. The oil that fuels China’s manufacturing comes primarily from the Arabian peninsula. Much of the material shipped from China are transported through the ports of Arabian peninsula, Dubai’s Jabal Ali port foremost among them. China’s ‘maritime silk road’ flanks the peninsula on all sides. Sinews of War and Trade is the story of what the making of new ports and shipping infrastructure has meant not only for the Arabian peninsula itself, but for the region and the world beyond. The book is an account of how maritime transportation is not simply an enabling companion of trade, but central to the very fabric of global capitalism. The ports that serve maritime trade, logistics, and hydrocarbon transport create racialised hierarchies of labour, engineer the lived environment, aid the accumulation of capital regionally and globally, and carry forward colonial regimes of profit, law and administration”--Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2019052101 (print) | LCCN 2019052102 (ebook) | ISBN 9781786634818 (hardback) | ISBN 9781786634849 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Shipping—Arabian Peninsula. | Capitalism--Arabian Peninsula. | Arabian Peninsula--Commerce. | Arabian Peninsula--Economic conditions.

      Classification: LCC HE559.A73 K43 2020 (print) | LCC HE559.A73 (ebook) | DDC 387.5/440953--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052101

      LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052102

      Typeset in Sabon LT by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh

      Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

      For Clare Hemmings and Kris Muhlner

      for the sustenance of love, pleasure and friendship

      over the years

      … whatever is given

      Can always be reimagined

      Seamus Heaney, ‘The Settle Bed’

      Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?

      Where is your tribal memory? Sirs,

      in that grey vault. The sea. The sea

      has locked them up. The sea is History.

      Derek Walcott, ‘The Sea Is History’

      Contents

       Map

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Route-making

Admiralty Charts and the making of routes

The emergence of steam

‘The seas inlaid with eloquent, gentle wires’

Pilgrimage

The Suez Canal

Port management of routes

Freight rates

Speculative routes

Chapter 2 – Harbour-making

Curzon’s ‘prancing in the Persian puddle’

Dammam

Creeks and harbours of the Trucial Coast

Dubai

Aden

Making and remaking the land and the sea

       Chapter 3 – Palimpsests of Law and Corporate Sovereigns

       Weaponising arbitration tribunal

       Dubai Ports World

       Geophysical features into legal categories

       The offshore

       The global struggle