There will be pain

摘要

AMID WARLORDS and bandits, as smallpox spread around him, George Bernard Reynolds searched the sands of Persia (now Iran) for oil. The British geologist drilled for seven years- and found little. Finally his financiers said enough was enough: it was time to dismiss the staff, dismantle the equipment and come home. Instead Reynolds kept drilling. And in the early morning hours of May 26th 1908, he struck a gusher. It was the first big petroleum find in the Middle East, but certainly not the last. Oil would soon transform the region's economies, enrich its ruling families and attract more foreign influence.