ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with two related topics; it discusses the economic costs and benefits to the European powers of their political control of the Middle East, and attempts to assess the evolution of the region itself since 1800. 1 The purpose of this inquiry is limited. It does not seek to evaluate the gain to the “center” of the formation of a world market, nor does it discuss “neocolonialism,” but it does deal with such types of “informal imperialism” as foreign influence in the Ottoman Empire and Iran. As far as the metropolitan powers are concerned, it seeks to ascertain their gains and losses, direct and indirect, from political control over the greater part of the Middle East, a process that has ended and may now be seen in perspective. For this purpose, as in national accounting, the unit of accounting taken here is the country (Britain, France, etc.) and not the government (as a taxing and spending unit) or the capitalist class. As noted below, this procedure fails to explain the dynamics of imperialism, but the analysis is still meaningful. For the region itself a broader approach has been used.
