EGYPT. 



233 



formed administration a surplus over expendi- 

 tures sufficient to add 153,000 Egyptian pounds 

 to the sinking fund, and furnish at least as 

 much for improvements on public works. For 

 some time to come the debt settlement will 

 consume 40 per cent of the total revenues of 

 the state. 



The effect of the settlement of the debt 

 question by the liquidation law was to raise 

 the price of Egyptian securities in the market 

 from 150 to 360 francs. Before the close of 

 the year 1880, 11,424,000 Egyptian pounds of 

 floating debt had been paid off, and there re- 

 mained 1,021,000 pounds yet to settle. The 

 revenues assigned for the payment of the debt 

 and interest are the land-taxes of four prov- 

 inces and the customs duties. 



The public debt of Egypt, amounting to 

 $365,000,000, exclusive of the Daira and Do- 

 main debts, which come to $85,000,000 more, 

 is an enormous burden for a land which has no 

 mines, forestries, or manufactures, and derives 

 its entire revenues from 4,750,000 acres of 

 agricultural land. The revenue reaches barely 

 $42,500,000, out of which as much as $20,- 

 000,000 go to the creditors, and $3,500,000 are 

 paid to the Sultan. The favorable financial 

 results of the year 1880, when, in addition to 

 the fixed obligations, $1,500,000 surplus was 

 applied to sinking the debt, are attributed by 

 Mr. Money to an abundant harvest, improved 

 trade, the readjustment of the land-tax, the 

 abolition of tax-payments in kind, and the 

 better legal facilities for the collection of ar- 

 -rears in taxation. The two coupons of the uni- 

 fied debt were paid, amounting to $11,250,000; 

 the deficit of the privileged debt, amounting 

 to $1,250,000, was made up; the large amount 

 due to the sinking fund was paid; and the 

 above surplus left over. The law of liquida- 

 tion increased the privileged debt $18,750,000, 

 making the annual charge for this part of the 

 debt some $6,000,000. 



The accomplishment of the far-reaching re- 

 forms which have been instituted in the Gov- 

 ernment of Egypt is ascribable in a great meas- 

 ure to the merits of Riaz Pasha. The substi- 

 tution of a Government monopoly of salt, for 

 the system by which the purchase of this com- 

 modity was made compulsory, has not resulted 

 favorably for the revenue thus far, by reason 

 of deficient supervision. In January, 1880, 

 twenty-eight small but vexatious taxes were 

 abolished, the poll-tax was done away with, 

 and the trade-taxes were reduced to narrower 

 limits, those which weighed down agricultural 

 occupations being happily removed altogether. 

 The resulting losses to the revenue were made 

 good by an increase in the Uahuri, or tithes, 

 resting upon lands. 



The Mukribala, one of the most vicious finan- 

 cial measures in Ismail Pasha's whole category 

 of impolicy, was remedied at the same time. 

 This was an arrangement by which proprietors 

 could, by the payment of certain assessments, 

 purchase a partial immunity from the land- 



taxes for all time. The actual losses accruing 

 to persons who had taken the benefit of this 

 law, by its abolition, were made good to them 

 by Treasury warrants. The land-tax laws 

 were referred to a commission for revision. 

 To establish a rational system of land-taxation 

 in Egypt is a work of long study and labor. 

 The survey and registration of the lands is first 

 necessary, and this work was immediately be- 

 gun. But, like all public business in Egypt, 

 this simple task soon got into a tangle. Gen- 

 eral Stone, the chief of the army staff, was 

 intrusted with the supervision of the survey. 

 After nine months of topographical work he 

 was replaced, April 7, 1880, by a commission, 

 which set to work to revise the work per- 

 formed, and adjudged the greater part of it 

 unsatisfactory. The 300,000 Egyptian pounds 

 thus far expended were consequently wasted, 

 and the labor of surveying the country will not 

 be completed in less than fifteen years, unless 

 a larger force and more capable directors are 

 employed. 



The decree of February 25, 1880, fixing the 

 time for the payment of taxes, affords a desired 

 relief to the Fellahs by making the collections 

 faD in harvest- time, and not when the agricult- 

 urist has paid out most of his money in pre- 

 paring for the next crop. In Lower Egypt 

 the taxes are collected, under the new regula- 

 tions, in part after the cotton-picking, which 

 commences in October, and in part after the 

 winter crop is harvested, or in April and the 

 succeeding months, while during the months 

 of March, August, and September no taxes are 

 collectable. In Upper Egypt nearly all the 

 collections are made between April and Au- 

 gust. The Kurbaj is still resorted to, and de- 

 linquent Fellahs are made to produce their 

 hoards under the lash. 



Payments of taxes in kind are abolished, 

 since the improvements in the means of com- 

 munication, especially in the postal system, 

 enable the inhabitants of the remotest districts 

 to convert their produce into money. The po- 

 sition of the tax-gatherer was materially bet- 

 tered by allowing him a yearly salary of twelve 

 Egyptian pounds, while the percentage which 

 he is allowed from the collected taxes has been 

 reduced one tenth. Through this change the 

 prevailing system of extortion will be remedied 

 to some extent, and the tax-payer somewhat 

 relieved from the necessity of providing for 

 the support of the collector on a more or less 

 liberal scale, in addition to the payments which 

 find their way into the Treasury. 



The tariff has been submitted to thorough 

 regulation, and the collection of customs 

 placed in charge of a better director, with 

 the result that they have yielded in the first 

 year a surplus of 100,000 Egyptian pounds. 

 The system of statute labor the new admin- 

 istration would like to abolish, and they have 

 striven to restrict the demands to the lowest 

 practicable limits. Nevertheless, the Depart- 

 ment of Public Works were obliged in 1880 



