ABSTRACT
The Kuwaiti economy depended on fishing, pearl-diving, seafaring, boat-building, herding and trade, before the discovery and export of oil. These were the pillars of the Kuwaiti economy, from its establishment in the 1670s until the outbreak of the Second World War. The climate of Kuwait is neither encouraging to herding nor inducive to agriculture. Statistics on the size and distribution of the population of Kuwait before the oil era are scanty and whatever statistics are available were mainly derived from personal estimates of European travellers and/or the British Political Agency in Kuwait. The geographical location of Kuwait at the northwest tip of the Gulf gave it great economic, political and strategic importance. Its favourable position in relation to the main trade routes and its relative political stability has been major factors in its importance as a seafaring and trading centre.
