276 



EGYPT. 



to- any measure tending to shorten the British 

 occupation. When M. Ribot became Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, he abandoned the attitude of his 

 predecessors, seizing the opportunity offered by 

 the Turkish pourparlers regarding the with- 

 drawal of the British garrison from Egypt to 

 declare his willingness to discuss the financial 

 question by itself, and by enlarging its scope 

 gained the credit of, initiating reform, turning 

 the previous discomfiture into a diplomatic ad- 

 vantage for France. 



Tigrane Pasha, who was delegated to confer 

 with the French Government, being assisted by 

 Mr. Palmer, accepted without demur the scheme 

 offered by M. Ribot for the conversion of all the 

 funded debts bearing more than 4 per cent, in- 

 terest. In respect to the application of the econ- 

 omies, the retention of the different debt admin- 

 istrations, the limitation of the new debt to be 

 raised for irrigation works, the fixing of the term 

 of fifteen years, during which no further con- 

 version shall be attempted, and other points on 

 which differences arose, the French minister 

 was supported this time, not by Russia alone, 

 but by all the Continental powers, and thus was 

 placed in a position to dictate the terms of the 

 agreement, which was concluded on May 21, ac- 

 cepted by all the powers, and embodied in a 

 khedivial decree of the same date. The Egyp- 

 tian Government was authorized to raise, at a 

 rate not exceeding 4 per cent., a sum sufficient to 

 convert or pay off at par the 5-per-cent. privi- 

 leged debt, the 4|-per-cent. loan of 1888, the 

 Domain mortgage bonds, and the Daira Sanieh 

 debt, and also to produce 1,300,000 Egyptian 

 pounds, of which seven tenths shall be applied 

 to the completion of the irrigation works author- 

 ized at the London Convention of 1885 and other 

 works for purposes of drainage and the diminu- 

 tion of the sharaki, or uncultivated land, and 

 three tenths to the commutation of pensions and 

 allowances. The saving in interest effected by 

 the conversion will be held by the Caisse de la 

 Dette as a reserve to be employed only for pur- 

 poses which the powers shall authorize by a later 

 agreement. For the new privileged, Domains, 

 and Daira Sanieh loans the existing guarantees 

 were maintained without modification. 



The conversion was effected through Roths- 

 child, the Credit Lyonnais, the Societe Gener- 

 ale, the Ottoman Bank, Bleichroder, and Baring 

 Brothers, at 3 per cent. The new bonds, of the 

 total amount of 40,000.000 pounds, were issued 

 at the emission price of 91, and advanced to 5 or 

 6 per cent, above this rate. 



The conversion of all these debts results in a 

 saving in interest of 300,000 pounds. Before the 

 negotiations were begun the British and Egyp- 

 tian authorities had agreed that a part of the 

 reserve fund should be applied to strengthening 

 the military and police forces, though not until 

 it should amount to 2,000,000 pounds. The 

 French Government was expected to place no 

 difficulties in the way of applying 150,000 pounds 

 a year toward abolishing the corvee in order to 

 avoid the new impost on the land that is known 

 as the " French tax," because the responsibility 

 for its imposition was laid to the charge of 

 France. The French Government refused to 

 discuss the application of the economies until 

 the political questions relating to England's po- 



sition in Egypt were settled ; but in consequence 

 of the hostile agitation that was fomented in 

 Egypt when the Egyptian Government in July 

 was about to order the collection of the tax, the 

 French agent announced the willingness of his 

 Government to allow all the economies for the 

 first year to go for corvee abolition. 



Military Forces. On Sept. 19, 1882, the 

 Egyptian army, which had been in rebellion, was 

 entirely disbanded by a decree of the Khedive, 

 and in December of that year a British officer 

 was intrusted with the organization of a new 

 force. The Egyptian army in 1889 had a total 

 strength of 9,400 men. It is commanded by 

 British officers, of whom there are 60 in the 

 Khedive's service, The police and the gendarm- 

 ery, also officered by Englishmen, number about 

 7,000 men. 



The British army of occupation, commanded 

 by Maj.-Gen. Sir James Dormer, had a total 

 strength of 3,300 men on Jan. 1, 1890. 



Commerce. The total value of the imports 

 in 1888 was 7,738,343 Egyptian pounds; the 

 value of the exports, 10,418,213 pounds. This 

 does not include specie, of which 2.038,956 Egyp- 

 tian pounds were imported and 2,642,900 pounds 

 exported, making the net import 603,944 pounds, 

 against 1,168,678 pounds in 1887. The import 

 of cotton goods was valued at 1,409,574 pounds; 

 other textiles, 774,279; coal, 441,660; hosiery 

 and clothing, 413,242; timber, 315,088; coffee, 

 296,950, wine, beer, and spirits, 281,989; tobac- 

 co, 270.455 : petroleum, 262,893 ; machinery, 261,- 

 035 ; other iron and steel goods, 246,746 ; in- 

 digo, 233,547 ; fruits, fresh and preserved, 189,- 

 070; animals, 170,042; wheat and flour, 128.677; 

 rice, 123,864. The cotton export was 6,823,311 

 Egyptian pounds in value, against 7,542,567 in 

 1887, and 7,120,812 in 1886. Cotton seed was 

 exported to the amount of 1,309,743 Egyptian 

 pounds: sugar, 541,168; beans, 469,910; wheat, 

 305,163 ; rice, 109,833; Indian corn, 99,665; hides 

 and skins, 79,069 ; onions, 72,153 ; wool, 57,783 ; 

 flour, 49,985 ; lentils, 19,530 : gum arabic, 1,938. 

 The participation of the various countries in the 

 external commerce of Egypt is shown in the fol- 

 lowing table, which gives, in Egyptian pounds, 

 the values of the imports from and of the ex- 

 ports to each one in 1888 : 



Communications. The post-office in 1887 

 forwarded 8,174,000 domestic and 4,742,000 for- 

 eign letters, an increase of 211,000 on the total 

 traffic of the preceding year. There were 171 

 post-offices at the end of 1888. The telegraphs 

 belonging to the Government at the close of 1888 

 had a total length of 3.172 miles, with 5,423 

 miles of wire. The number of telegrams trans- 

 mitted during that year was 606,869. 



