CIAO DATE: 01/2010
November 2009
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
While oil discovery brought revenue to Dubai and would change the city's physiognomy, moving it beyond the initial three settlements along the creek, it is clear that Dubai's status as a dynamic entrepôt for international trade and transshipment, its foundational infrastructure projects, and its "free port" policies to attract merchant communities from throughout the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, along with licit and illicit trade for re-export to Persia/Iran and India, were solidly established before "black gold" was struck in Fateh field.
Resource link: The Blueprint: A History of Dubai's Spatial Development Through Oil Discovery [PDF] - 2.3M