COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 9 



A French engineer from Geneva, Jumel, who had travelled 

 widely, and had visited, among other places, North America, came 

 in 1820 to Cairo, and found in the garden of Maho Bey in Bulak 

 seVeral ornamental cotton shrubs, a few years old, which had an 

 extraordinary beautiful long and fine staple of brownish tint, which 

 attracted his attention. Probably the seed had been brought from 

 Dongola or Senaar, where Maho Bey had once been the Governor, 

 for south of Egypt proper, particularly towards Abyssinia, there had 

 been grown, since olden times, a fine kind of cotton. Another account 

 says that a Turkish Dervish brought from India a parcel of seeds as 

 a present to Maho Bey. After Jumel had sought in vain to direct 

 the attention of Mohammed Ali to the proper and rational cultivation 

 of good cotton, he prepared himself a few acres near Matarieh with 

 seed from Maho, and the three bales of cotton which he obtained 

 from his experiment sold at such a high price on the market at 

 Trieste that Mohammed Ali accepted Jumel's suggestion, and under- 

 took with great enthusiasm the cultivation of cotton, in the whole of 

 Lower Egypt, on extensive measures. In 1821, 944 kantars of this 

 raw cotton were raised, and they fetched a price of 16 Talleri per kan- 

 tar. Although the fellaheen had been cultivating cotton since early 

 times, they could not be brought to a rapid extension of cotton cultiva- 

 tion except by compulsory measures, which, however, were not a 

 great burden, because the Pasha held all the lands and the monopoly 

 of commerce for all agricultural products. It was he \vho ordered what 

 should be grown every year, and at what price it should be sold. 

 The high prices of the new Jumel cotton caused a rapid increase in the 

 cultivation, to the detriment of wheat and the old Bellidi cotton, whose 

 cultivation until 1832 fell continually. Shortly afterwards it was 

 entirely forbidden, because only 8 to 10 Talleri were paid per kantar 

 against 15 to 16 Talleri of the Jumel cotton. Before 1821 only 

 2 per cent, of the whole of the land cultivated was under cotton, but 

 this percentage rose within a short time to 35 per cent., and in 1824 

 the surprisingly large exportation of 228,000 kantars was reached. 



Very soon new kinds of cotton there had been introduced. 

 In 1822 " Nanking " from Malta and the real " Sea Island cotton " 

 from America had been introduced ; then other species from South 

 America, the Levant, and India were imported. These latter kinds 

 had white lint originally, but little by little the lint became brownish. 

 Brazilian seed came first in 1827 to Egypt, and was grown for a long 

 time. With the exception of the genuine Sea Island cotton, which 

 Jumel introduced in 1822 and \vhich was cultivated up to 1838, all 

 other kinds gave more unfavourable results than the Jumel cotton, 

 whose demand in the market had been firmly established through the 

 special care of cultivation which Mohammed Ali had taken. The 

 primitive system of cotton cultivation of the past, which was of no 

 great concern, became much improved under the joint help of experts 

 from Syria, which country at that time was a model for the cultiva- 

 tion ot cotton. Some experts were also sent for from the most 

 renowned cotton plantations in North America. 



Jumel, who had himself taken the lead in cultivation, saw 

 his prophecies realised, but he did not personally make any profit, 

 and in 1828 he died almost a bankrupt. Up to the present day the 

 names of men who introduced modern cotton cultivation into Egypt 



