308 



EGYPT. 



his disposition a force of marines and sailors, 

 to whose efforts it is due that the city was not 

 wholly destroyed. 



Commerce. The staple articles of import 

 from the United Kingdom into Egypt consist 

 of cotton goods, of the value, in 1883, of 1,- 

 861,601 ; coal, of the value of 507,679 ; ma- 

 chines, 121,412; and iron, 130,436. 



The export of raw cotton to Great Britain 

 in 1883 was 1,523,975 cwt., valued at 5,976674. 

 Next to cotton, the largest article of export 

 from Egypt to the United Kingdom, in the year 

 1883, was grain and flour of the value of 1,- 

 577,970. The value of cotton-seed exported, 

 1,696,534; heans, 902,623; wheat, 645,- 

 070; sugar, 394,318; ivory, 129,260; skins, 

 124,407; rice, 121,357; gum, 120,640; 

 maize, 41,961 ; ostrich-feathers, 70,014. 



The value of cotton goods imported in 1884 

 was 1,885,380; coal, 915,023 ; clothing, 1,- 

 212,780; indigo, 334,889 ; timber, 274,759 ; 

 wine and spirits, 259,728 ; coffee, 217,907 ; 

 tobacco, 173,768; refined sugar, 170,454; 

 machinery, 142,065 ; wheat, 51,142. 



The relative percentage of trade with vari- 

 ous countries is as follows: England, 60; 

 France and Algeria, 10-8; Turkey, 8'8; Aus- 

 tria and Hungary, 7'5; Italy, 5*2; Russia, 2*7; 

 India and China, 2*1 ; America, 1*6; Greece, 

 0*5 ; other countries, 1*8. 



The imports of the last year were valued at 

 8,596,976, and the exports at 12,309,885. 



Railroads and Telegraphs. On Jan. 1, 1884, 

 Egypt had a railway system of a total single 

 line of 1,276 miles. The projection of the 

 Soudan Railway along the Nile is under ad- 

 visement, but will not be undertaken for the 

 present, unless as a part of the military opera- 

 tions that may be resumed against the Mahdi. 

 The proposed railway from Suakin to Berber, 

 which was in process of construction, has been 

 abandoned. It was from the beginning wholly 

 an English enterprise, and has proved to be a 

 very costly undertaking. The Egyptian Post- 

 Office transmitted 5,841,000 letters inland and 

 3,746,000 foreign letters in 1883. At the close 

 of the year 1884 the telegraph lines consisted 

 of 7,841 kilometres ; of wires, 12,040, of which 

 8,097 were in Egypt and 3,943 in the Soudan. 



The Suez Canal. The canal is ninety-nine 

 miles long, having its terminals on the Red Sea 

 at Suez, and on the Mediterranean at Port 

 Said. The state of the capital account in 1883 

 was as follows : 



896,845 shares of 500 francs or 20 each 



297,885 obligations of 500 franca or 20 each, issued 

 at 12, bearing interest at 5 per cent, on par, and 

 redeemable at par 5,957,700 



76,007 delegations, 500 francs, bearing interest at 5 

 percent 1520140 



96,719 thirty-year bonds, 125 francs, at 8 francs in- 

 terest per annum 483 595 



23 841 bonds of 500 francs, 8 per cent .... '. '.'.'.'. '. '. '. '. 462,607 



899,518 coupon bonds of 3 8s. each, bearing inter- 

 est at 5 per cent., for consolidation of unpaid 

 coupons on shares redeemable at par, com- 

 menced November, 1882 1,858,361 



In 1883 the founders' share of surplus profits 

 was 143,454. Of the 396,845 shares, 176,602 



shares belonged formerly to the Khedive Is- 

 mail, and were purchased from him by the Brit- 

 ish Government, in November, 1875, for the 

 sum of 3,976,582. But the Khedive, by a 

 convention passed in 1869, between himself and 

 the Suez Canal Company, for the settlement of 

 disputed claims and accounts, had alienated all 

 dividends on his 176,602 shares up to 1894, 

 and placed them at the disposal of the com- 

 pany. Against these dividends the company 

 issued 120,000 delegations, which are entitled to 

 all sums accruing on the above 176,602 shares 

 up to 1894. The dividends that the delega- 

 tions receive are, however, lessened by an an- 

 nual sum to provide a sinking fund to extin- 

 guish them all by the end of the year 1894. 



The number and gross tonnage of vessels 

 that have passed through the Suez Canal for 

 the year are as follow : Number of vessels, 

 3,307; tonnage, 8,106,601; receipt, 2,645,- 

 506. The net profits were 1,434,540. The 

 total dividend (after placing 5 per cent, to 

 sinking fund) paid was 17*33 per cent. 



The following table shows the number and 

 gross tonnage of vessels of the leading nation- 

 alities that passed the canal during 1883: 



The Suez Canal Commission. In the counter- 

 proposition presented by the French ministry 

 on the 8th of January, 1885, a proposal was 

 made to establish a definite regime, destined to 

 guarantee forever to all nations the free use of 

 the Suez Canal. The minister said, u The Cab- 

 inet at London will not refuse its acquiescence 

 to a proposition in which the principle hi 

 been recognized with so much clearness and 

 loyalty in the dispatches of Lord Granville of 

 the 3d of January, 1883, and of the 16th June, 

 1884.'' Nevertheless, England hesitated to ac- 

 quiesce ; and after several meetings without 

 result, the commission that met in Paris de- 

 cided, on the llth May, to suspend work until 

 after the ministerial crisis in England, and will 

 not convene, perhaps, until after the elections. 



M. Freycinet, replying to a member in the 

 French Senate, said that the question of the 

 evacuation of Egypt had been reserved, and 

 that of the Suez Canal deferred ; that the ob- 

 stacles presented to the latter was the modit* 

 of the surveillance to be employed. 



The Soudan. The Egyptian Government des- 

 ignates under the generic name of Soudan all 

 that country situated south of the second cat- 

 aract. The word Soudan means black (Bilad- 

 el-Soudari), the country of the blacks. Prior to 

 the advent of the Mahdi, the Soudan, extending 

 south to the equator, marked the southern 

 limits of Egypt. The wonderful King M'Ts6 

 had signed an instrument of writing presented 



