PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 149 



cattle, or renew his bond on still more ruinous terms. He was, in 

 fact, entirely at the mercy of the lender." 



That some betterment of such a condition of affairs was im- 

 perative if civilization was to be maintained and the substantial 

 dissolution of Egyptian society prevented, seemed evident, and to 

 effect it most rationally and speedily, an experiment was insti- 

 tuted that, as respects its nature and results, finds no parallel in 

 the world's history. This in brief was the creation of a fiscal 

 commission, by Sir Evelyn Baring, then British agent and consul 

 general in Egypt (but now Lord Cromer, minister plenipotentiary), 

 the members of which were selected solely by reason of their 

 recognized qualifications for the work in hand and invested with 

 almost autocratic powers. To this commission was intrusted the 

 task of examining and reconstructing a revenue system of long 

 duration and fortified by the precedents, customs, and prejudices, 

 of an entire country, with a not inconsiderable population. The 

 commission when organized in 1884-'85 entered upon its work 

 under exceedingly unfavorable circumstances. The financial pres- 

 sure was most acute. The magnitude of the national debt was 

 apparently overwhelming ; and the prices of the leading agricul- 

 tural staples of the country, depressed in an extraordinary degree 

 by world-wide competition, consequent upon improved conditions 

 of production and transportation, seemed to preclude all possi- 

 bility of obtaining any increased revenues from the masses by a 

 continuance of the old, or even by any new methods of extortion. 

 The first step taken was to abolish as rapidly and as far as pos- 

 sible all unnecessary and unproductive expenditures ; and for this 

 there was large opportunity. A diminution was made in the pen- 

 sion list, and in the number of superfluous and highly paid of- 

 ficials. By the concurrent action of the great powers of Europe 

 the rate of interest on the funded debt of Egypt was also some- 

 what reduced. 



The next important measure that claimed the attention of the 

 commission was the grievance of the corvee, or system of enforced 

 labor on the part of the peasantry on the public works ; which, 

 if entitled to be called taxation, was taxation of the worst and 

 most wasteful kind, entailing sacrifices upon the people out of 

 all proportion to the money which it saved to the state. It was 

 not, however, found practical at the outset to abolish it alto- 

 gether. The old practice by which the fellahs might be dragged 

 away from their villages at any moment for any purpose, public 

 or private, upon which the Khedive might choose to employ them, 

 was at once totally abrogated. On the other hand, the agricul- 

 ture of Egypt, the main source of support of her people, depends 

 upon the water of the Nile, distributed through irrigating ditches 

 or canals ; and in order that these should fulfill their purpose, it is 



