KCVIT. 



271 



-hares of foreign countries in the 

 trudc of iss'i is >h..\vn in tin- following 



import of cotton goods in 1889 was valued 

 K. 1.:! 10,820; of silk, linen, woolen, and 

 ier textile manufactures, E. 599,349 ; of coal, 

 IO.'.KS ; of clothing and hosiery, E. 817,- 

 71 1 : of timber. C !:. 'J88,540; of coffee, E.254,- 

 -f wine, beer, and spirits, E. 248.810; 

 "o;md cigars, t E. 272,042; of petroleum, 

 . 1 .-2:it ; of machinery, E. 103,943 ; of iron 

 and steel manufactures, E. 264,207; of indigo, 

 177.057; of fresh and preserved fruit, 

 17ii.25; of live animals, E. 71,724; of 

 icat and flour, E. 219,635 ; of rice, E. 128,- 

 >f refined sugar, E. 40.282. The values 

 I'Xp'.rted of the principal commercial products 

 of the country were as follow: Cotton, E. 8,- 

 17.7H!: cotton seed, E. 1,453,892; sugar, 

 496,795 ; beans, E. 826,836 ; wheat, 

 l(M,(i08; rice, E. 74,809; Indian corn, 

 I. -J.iir.i) : hides and skins. E. 86,118; onions, 

 'J K. r.:;.-ji4; wool, E. 63,000; flour, E. 5,- 

 >ntils, E. 10,762; gum arabic, E. 2,- 

 .Viii. Of the petroleum in 1889 the United 



urnished 27 per cent, and Russia 73. 

 nt cm ill Communications. The railroads 

 _-ypt liave a total length of 1,123 miles. The 

 receipts in 1889 were E. 1.301,529 and the ex- 

 ?s E. 585,000. There were 4,378,453 pas- 

 r tickets sold, and about 150,000 tons of 

 s transported. The telegraph lines of the 

 nment had in 1889 a total length of 3,640 

 milt's, with 5,704 miles of wire. The number of 

 nii-ss-iires in that year was 693,640. The postal 

 tnillic in 1888 comprised 5,529,000 domestic and 

 ::.! Ki.OOO international letters, 473,000 post cards, 

 and 4.440.000 newspapers, samples, etc. 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered 



at t he port of Alexandria during 1889 was 2,224, 



tonnage 1. .")(!. !I61 ; the number cleared was 



J.-.'Hi. touting' 1,528,977. Of the number entered, 



rJl. of r.r.i;.:;s:: tons, were British; 142, of 261,- 



<.ns, were French ; 1,154, of 259,255 tons, 



1 n toman : 67, of 99.910 tons, were Russian ; 



'III. "f 58,004 tons, were Italian ; and the rest were 



principally (Jreek. Swedish arid Norwegian, and 



Spanish. At other ports besides Alexandria 



Is were entered or cleared, of which 



l.M'i. of -J.958,291 tons, were British. 



The Suez Canal. The canal is 87 miles 

 lorn:, including 21 miles of lakes. The share 

 capital is lii 7.: 1:58,500 francs. The indebtedness 

 i- J: 1 .::.::ii7.'i0:5 francs, paying 8 and 5 per cent, 

 interest. The net profits, in excess of 5 per 

 e.-nt. interest on the capital stock, in 1889 were 

 I! 7,012,821 francs, of which, according to the 



statutes, 71 per cent, was divided among tho 

 holders of the 894,677 shares. 'J per cent, went 

 to i IK- employe's of the company, 2 |MT cent, to 

 the managing directors. 10 |HT cent. t.. the 100,- 

 (KKI founders' shares, and 1") per c. nt. to the 

 Egyptian (lovernmeiit. Of the U1M.077 shares, 

 Ki'..i'.'1-J are held by the Brili-h (iovi-nimcnt, 

 having been purchased from the Khedive Ismail, 

 who had alienated the dividends up to 1H<>4. till 

 which date the Egyptian (iovernment is obliged 

 to pay 5 per cent, interest on their face value. 

 During 1889 the number of vessels that passed 

 through the canal was 3,425. of 9,605,745 tons. 

 (if these. 2.611, of 7,478,369 tons, were Brit Mi: 

 168, of 547,602 tons, were French; 194. of 468,- 

 225 tons, were German; 103, of 279,331 tons, 

 were Italian; 146, of 859,722 tons, wen Dutch; 

 54, of 168,707 tons, were Austro- Hungarian ; 

 83, of 101,792 tons, were Spanish : 48. of 90.046 

 tons, were Norwegian; 23, of 57.254 tons, were 

 Russian; 22, of 81,376 tons, were Turkish; 8, of 

 6,743 tons, were Egyptian ; 3, of 5,680 tons, were 

 Japanese; 5, of 3,805 tons, were American ; and 

 the rest were Belgian, Chinese, Portuguese, and 

 Danish. The number of passengers who made 

 the transit in 1889 was 180,594. 



French Obstruction. British direction and 

 supervision of the Government have increased 

 the national wealth, though the present pros- 

 perity has been achieved at the cost of the per- 

 manent impairment of the soil by cotton cult- 

 ure. The finances of the Government have 

 been placed on so secure a foundation that Sir 

 Evelyn Baring asserts in his report for 1891 that 

 it would require a series of untoward events, the 

 occurrence of which is in the highest degree im- 

 probable, to endanger the solvency of the Egyp- 

 tian treasury. There was a surplus of E. .V.'i'.- 

 000 at the end of 1890, much more than was 

 calculated on, and for 1891 a surplus of E. 500,- 

 000 was anticipated. The unified debt, which is 

 mainly held in France, fell to 30 in consequence 

 of the rebellion of Arabi Pasha, and since the 

 British occupation has risen to within 4 percent, 

 of par. A part of the surplus revenue, viz.. 

 E. 312,000 a year, was obtained by the conver- 

 sion of the privileged debt and the loan of 1888 

 and the Daira Sanieh and Domain mortgage 

 bonds. France gave a conditional assent to the 

 application of the economies thus resulting to 

 the abolition of the corvee and to increasing the 

 military and police forces. All the other treaty 

 powers having consented, there was no corvee in 

 Egypt in 1890, probably for the first time in the 

 history of the country, all the cleaning, repairs. 

 and extension of the" canals and embankments 

 having formerly been done by the forced and 

 unpaid labor of the fellaheen, who were often 

 called away when their crop- needed their atten- 

 tion, and compelled to maintain themselves dur- 

 ing the sixty days when the Goveniment required 

 their labor. In 1884 the army of laborers thus 

 pressed into the service of the state was 85,000 

 in number. This method was so uneconomical 

 that the English engineers were able to re- 

 duce the numl>er gradually and still carry out 

 the most important achievement of the British 

 control the improvement of the irrigation sy<- 

 tem. by which the water distribution has boon in- 

 creased, the area of cultivation enlarged, and the 

 fluctuations of the Nile regulated t-> a considers- 





