Before Oil: Cutch in Brunei

[Note: My article below was published yesterday on the Brunei Times in the usual Golden Legacy column.]TODAY everyone in Brunei and the world knows Brunei as an oil exporter. But Brunei has only been an oil exporter from 1929 onwards. Nobody remembered what Brunei had before oil was discovered in commercial quantity in 1929 (oil was discovered as far back as 1899 but not in commercial quantity).