It’s thirty years now since I first went to Saudi Arabia

It was a measure of the deal’s novelty that the already-mighty US dollar still carried little weight in the primitive barter-and-bullion economy of Arabia. Abd’al-Aziz wanted to be paid in gold sovereigns, which were duly shipped to Jeddah in a wooden chest that was placed for safe-keeping, according to cherished Saudi legend, under the bed ... ................
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