1S74.] —"x/ [Dclmar 



In 1837 the miri or laud tax was from $1.75 per feddan per annum on 

 ordinary lands, to $5 on sugar lands. It is at present, lb74, about %o per 

 feddau on all lands. Beside this, there is a poll tax ; a tax on date trees, 

 which, as elsewhere explained, is equivalent to aa additional poll tax ; 

 octroi taxes on the principal articles of consumption ; tolls to support the 

 irrigation canals ; taxes on the fisheries (one-third) ; on salt ; on the con- 

 sumption of wheat ($1) and barley, beans, Indian corn, and pulse (75 

 cents per bushel in 1837) ; import and export duties ; monopolization of 

 all the branches of industry by the government ; forced service ; debase- 

 ment of the copper coinage and every other device of a vicious and mer- 

 ciless finance. Beside these, there are dues to the mosques and various 

 local exactions. 



The total revenues of the Viceroyalty in 1821 were about $6,000,000 ; 

 in 1833 about $12,500,000 ; in 1850 about $20,000,000 ; in 1872 about $36,- 

 500,000. This last sum is equivalent to 10 cents per day for every fam- 

 ily in the country, or the whole value of the labor of every father, or head 

 of family. The same rate of taxation — that is, the whole value of one 

 man's labor exacted from pach family in the land — were it possible in the 

 United States, would amount to 8,000 million dollars per annum, or four 

 times the whole sum of the national debt. But thank God, io isiiH pos- 

 sible. 



The taxes are raised in Egypt through a Sheik-el-belled or head of village 

 commune, chosen by the people and against his will, for although armed 

 with arbitrary power, should he fail to collect the heavy tribute, his life 

 is generally forfeited. The government sends him in chains to the South- 

 ern frontier and he is seldom heard of again. 



Ikterest. 



The Mahometan law, like the canon law of Christianity and the ancient 

 Jewish law, forbids the taking of interest ; but like those laws, it has 

 fallen into disuse in this respect. In 1837 the Viceroy allowed 6 per cent, 

 for advances to him from European houses. — MacGieggor. At the same 

 time the market rate for money among mercantile houses in Egypt was 

 10 to 18 per cent, per annum. At the present time the rate of interest 

 ranges between 10 per cent, on the most desirable class of government 

 securities, to 60 and even 100 per cent, per annum on fair commercial 

 risks. These excessive rates appear to result less from high profits than 

 great insecurity and the lack of a basis of individual right for an admin- 

 istration of justice. The prevailing insecurity is susceptible of being il- 

 lustrated by four striking examples. 1st. The tenure of lands is merely 

 the will of the Viceroy. 2d. In 1866 the Viceroy informed the European 

 resident creditors of the rural population that, in future, it would bs use- 

 less for them to claim against the natives. — Br. Cons. Rep. 6-1867, p. 

 296. 3d. In 1864, though gold was at that time pouring into the country 

 to pay for cotton, so overwhelming was the general instinct to hoard and 

 bury money, that little or none of it remained in circulation. " On one 



