ABSTRACT
One may perhaps argue that, to follow K. Polanyi, the role of the state was crucially important for the creation of a free market in Europe. 1 There the state shaped a legal frame for the free conduct of international trade in which the same set of globally recognized laws applies universally. Precisely the opposite situation existed in the Arabian seas. There the coexistence of various incompatible systems of law, or legal pluralism, was common. Each community ruled itself according to its own customs, its adat. While there was legislation regulating trade on the markets within the kingdom, there did not exist a system of international legislation to govern foreign trade or foreign settlement throughout the region.
