ABSTRACT
The view that states, of themselves, produce the security of property and person necessary for production of agricultural, pastoral and industrial surpluses has been questioned recently by scholars working from documents and from archaeological survey and excavation. Local people in the Bilad ash-Sham consider that states move in to regions only when surpluses are already in production. The state is seen as a predator from outside, cunningly hunting down opportunities for removing surpluses out of the control of local producers and consumers for its own benefit and at the same time seeking to constantly enlarge its field of operations. Local opinion holds that surpluses in production on the scale to attract states, over and above local requirements, are generated from external inputs and demand. The development of the oil industry and economy is frequently cited as an obvious example, where the West provided the motivation and the technologies, and its continued demand for oil affects the economics and politics of the whole region. People also cite the grain market at some periods as driven by outside demand, as during both World Wars and regional wars at various dates in the nineteenth century and earlier. The transformation of herding, with the camel now as a commercial meat or dairy animal rather than having a major function of transport and draught, and the consequent rise of sheep herding for urban markets expanded by oil money, is attributed to the introduction of modern forms of transport and pumping equipment.
