236 



EGYPT. 



ing $25,000 each, $10,750,000 ; 64 sugar-mills, 

 built aud equipped with machinery, $30,500,- 

 000; for Alexandria Harbor improvement, 

 Greenfield and Elliot contract, $12,710,000; to 

 Dussaud Brothers for Suez docks, $7,000,000 ; 

 to the Paris syndicate for the Alexandria 

 water-works, $1,500,000; for construction of 

 910 miles of new railroads, $66,805,000 ; for 

 5,200 miles of telegraph, $4,265,000; for erec- 

 tion of 15 light-houses on the Mediterranean 

 and Eed Seas, $940,000. 



The value of the. improvements wrought by 

 Ismail has been variously estimated. The 

 Suez Canal has been of slight economical value 

 to Egypt. The irrigation canals were the 

 great work of his reign. If they had been 

 constructed by hired instead of forced labor, 

 they would have cost 28,000,000 at the rates 

 paid for excavating the Suez Canal. They 

 have reclaimed no less than 1,373,000 acres 

 from the desert, representing a gross annual 

 product of 11,000,000, and a rental value of 

 1.400,000. Only half the sugar-factories es- 

 tablished by Ismail have been kept at work, 

 and more than two thirds of their cost was a 

 sheer loss. The harbor-works at Alexandria, 

 including a new harbor of 1,400 acres, return 

 only 1^ per cent in harbor dues on the exces- 

 sive price paid the contractors ; but they are 

 of great economical value to the country. The 

 railroads and telegraphs constructed by Ismail 

 yield 5 per cent on the outlay ; 8,600,000 

 was expended during his reign on the 4,632 

 public schools established by him, and 900,- 

 000 was lost in the village banks which he 

 started to save the fellaheen from the usurers. 

 In the Nile Steamboat Company's shares he 

 lost 155,000. In building palaces and opera- 

 houses, and in entertaining European poten- 

 tates, he expended over 1,000,000. The ex- 

 travagances of Ismail were the wonder of the 

 world, particularly his lavish hospitality to 

 travelers of diplomatic, scientific, or artistic 

 note, and his expenditures in introducing the 

 French opera in Cairo. The sums which he 

 spent in getting the Sultan to grant him the 

 title of Khedive instead of that of Viceroy, and 

 to decree the Salic law of primogeniture for 

 the succession, have never been computed. 

 The reason for his embarking so imprudently 

 on a career of dazzling Oriental magnificence 

 and display, and in gigantic schemes of public 

 improvements, without counting the cost, was 

 because he thought that the cotton famine, 

 which yielded such enormous profits for the 

 cotton product of Egypt during the blockade 

 of the American ports, would be permanent, 

 and that the freed negroes of the Southern 

 States would never again work in the cotton- 

 fields. 



During the seventeen years of Ismail's reign 

 Egypt certainly made great progress. The 

 population increased from 4,833,000 to 5,518,- 

 000; the acreage cultivated from 4,052,000 to 

 5,425,000 acres ; the revenue from 4,937,000 

 to 8,562,000 ; the imports from 1,991,000 



to 5,410,000, and the exports from 4,454,- 

 000 to 13,810,000 ; the mileage of railroads 

 from 275 to 1,185 miles; of telegraphs from 

 630 to 5,820 miles; of canals from 44,000 to 

 52,400 miles. Yet the intrinsic value of Is- 

 mail's improvements, the price for which they 

 could be replaced, is not much more than 25,- 

 000,000, or one quarter the sum for which he 

 gave his obligations, which are treated as the 

 national debt of Egypt, to exact the payment 

 of which France and England interfered, al- 

 though there was no precedent for interna- 

 tional intervention to enforce the payment of 

 just and regular public loans. The three privi- 

 leged loans, the domain, Daira, and preferred, 

 which are secured by the most valuable assets 

 of the Egyptian Government, amount to more 

 than this sum, being 30,598,000 in all. For 

 the 42,000,000 which the ex-Khedive actually 

 received from the bondholders, the Egyptians 

 have paid back in fifteen years over 60,000,- 

 000 in interest! 



Besides the debt which Ismail saddled upon 

 Egypt, he agreed to double the tribute to Tur- 

 key for the privilege of changing the order of 

 succession ; so that the Egyptians have to pay 

 5,500,000 a year for the blessing of being 

 ruled by Tevfik Pasha, instead of Halim. 



The financial system in Egypt rests on an 

 enormous land-tax which can be collected, ow- 

 ing to the great productivity of the soil. The 

 tax averages 1 per acre on the arable area. 

 The tax yielded 4,793,000 in the beginning 

 of Ismail's reign. The Ouchory, or tithe-lands 

 belonging to the rich proprietors, were taxed 

 at the average rate of 7s. per acre ; the _ffa- 

 radji, or lands of the fellaheen, at the rate of 

 23s. per acre; and the Abadieh, or special 

 grants, consisting mostly of new lands re- 

 claimed from the desert, yielded an uncertain 

 revenue, said to average 16*. per acre. The 

 product of the land-tax, at the time of the de- 

 position of Ismail, was as follows: 



The corvee, or compulsory labor on public 

 works, from which the Abadieh lands are ex- 

 empt, is a heavy burden upon the Karadji. 

 Each village has to contribute one fourth of its 

 adult male population for one month yearly to 

 work upon the roads, canals, etc. The zawats, 

 or wealthy payers of tithes in charity, who 

 hold the Ouchory, get their laborers exempted 

 by paying twelve shillings per head annually. 



The customs duties in Egypt are light, yield- 

 ing only about a million sterling. The import 

 duties are 8 per cent, the export 1 per cent, ad 

 valorem. 



The estimate of revenue made by Major 

 Baring has been made good. The Egyptians 

 have paid the interest on the public debt since 



