Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/752

 EGYPT

698

more important categories of imports and exports. In the o owing tables those articles have been selected winch have an intimate connexion with the national prosperity : Average Annual Imports. and Iron Building Coal. Cotton Goods. SteelGoods. Period. Wood. Tons. £E. Tons. Kilos. 449,000 308,000 12,000 1884-88 13,452,000 513,000 388,000 25,000 1889-93 13,665,000 701,000 513,000 34,000 1894-98 16,984,000

[finance

During this period fresh debt was incurred for the following purposes:— £4,250,000 Alexandria indemnities ... _ • _ • 4,030,000 Deficits of years prior to 1886, including Sudan. Commutations of pensions and allowances of the 2,769,000 Khedivial family ...••• 513,000 Treasury working balance. . . • • 1,959,000 Irrigation works . . .. 1,169,000 Expenses of loans (commissions, &c.). .

£14,690,000 1,305,000 £13,385,000 Leaving a net increase on this account of. . Average Annual Exports. To this sum must be added the amount by which the debt was increased in consequence of the Onions. Sugar. 1,945,000 Cotton Seed. Cotton. Period. conversion of the preference and Daira stocks. Kantars. Kilos. Hectolitres. Making a total increase of £15,330,000 Kan tars. 226,000 1884-88 2,707,000 4,240,000 38,919,000 656,000 43,375,000 On the other hand, the amount of bonds on the market has been 5,425,000 3,659,000 1889-93 diminished by the following amounts : 1894-98 4,951,000 6,458,000 63,147,000 1,083,000 Bv sales of property (mostly Dai'ra and Domains) . • • £6,304,000 On the 31st December 1900 the total amount of the By surplus revenue, of which £7,273,000 is now held by the Egyptian debt was <£102,714,000, of which £7,273,000 commissioners of the debt. . 10,042,000 was held by the commissioners of the debt on £10,04:0,111)1/ Debt ‘ account of the general reserve fund and the fund of the economies of the conversion, as will be exMaking a net reduction of £1,016,000 plained hereafter, thus leaving £95,441,000 in the hands These figures are remarkable. They show' that in spite of the public. The particulars of the different loans are of about £13,000,000 having been borrowed for various shown in the accompanying table : objects, and in spite of conversion operations, which added by the nearly £2,000,000 to the capital of the debt, the total On the Held Total. Caisse Market. de la Dette. amount of Egyptian bonds on the market in 1901 was one million less than in 1883. This result was mainly, although £ £ & not entirely, due to the system under which large sums of 7,941,000 392,000 8,333,000 Guaranteed loan 3 per cent. money remained at the close of each year in the hands of 28,338,000 1,055,000 29,393,000 Preference debt 3^ per cent, 55,972,000 5,493,000 50,479,000 the commissioners of the debt, and were by them in c;,ted j Unified debt 4 per cent, 2,000 2,897,000 in Egyptian stocks. Whatever objections may on other 2,899,000 j Domains loan 4^ per cent. 6,117,000 331,000 5,786,000 grounds be urged against this system, it cannot be doubted 102,714,000 7,273,000 95,441,000 that its result is to accumulate what is practically a large Total. and ever-increasing sinking fund. During the five years 1896-1900 debt was either paid off or withdrawn from In June 1890 the assent of the Powers was obtained to the market by Government purchase at an average rate of the conversion of the preference, Domains, and. Daira no less than £1,262,000 a year. It should be added that loans on the following conditions, imposed at the initiative the interest charge on the bonds on the market, which on of the French Government:— the 1st January 1883 stood at £4,166,000, was in 1901 1. The employment of the economies resulting from the convei- £3,604,000, a diminution of £562,000. sion was to be the subject of future agreement with the Powers. In order to give a complete account of the financial 2. The Daira loan was to be reimbursed at 85 per cent., instead of 80 per cent., as provided by the law of liquidation. , position of the Egyptian Government, some explanation 3. The sales of Domains and Daira lands were to be restricted must be supplied of the various reserve funds which are to £E. 300,000 a year each, thus prolonging the period of liquida- in operation. The general reserve fund was Reserve tion of those estates. created with the assent of the Powers by the de- funds. The interest on the preference stock was reduced from cree of the 12th July 1888. Beginning with a 5 to 3J per cent., and on the Domains from 5 to per sum of £E.340,000, being the amount saved by a change cent. As regards the Daira loan, there w7as no apparent in the system of accounts introduced in 1887, this fund is reduction in the rate of interest, which remained at 4 pei increased annually by the share of the Caisse in the surcent., but the bondholders received £85 of the new stock plus by the interest on the invested accumulations, and for every £100 of the old. The annual economy to the by the produce of the sale of certain Government lands. Egyptian Government amounted at the time of the con- When the unpledged portion of the fund reaches the sum version to £E.348,000. Further, an engagement was of £E.2,000,000, no further accumulation is allowed under entered into that there should be no reimbursement of the the provisions of the above-mentioned decree, and the loans till 1905 for the preference and Daira, and 1908 I excess has to be applied to sinking fund. Up to the end for the Domains. By an arrangement concluded in June | of 1901 this contingency had never occurred. Ihe fund 1898, between the Egyptian Government and a syndicate, is primarily intended to be used in making good any e the unsold balance of the Daira estates will be taken over ficiency in the payment of the interest on the debt or o by the syndicate in October 1905, for the amount of the the administrative expenditure authorized by the London debt remaining. The Daira loan will then cease to exist. convention and subsequent agreements. It may also be The total amount of Egyptian bonds on the market on drawn upon for extraordinary _ expenditure with the prethe 1st January 1883 and 1st January 1901 respectively vious consent of the commissioners of the Caisse. Ibe was as follows :— total amount paid into the general reserve fund, from its £96,457,000 constitution in 1888 down to the end of 19, w 1st January 1883 95,441,000 1st January 1901 £E.8,106,000, of which £E.4,577,000 was actually spent Showing a reduction of
 * Daira Sanieh loan 4 per cent.

£1,016,000

Less—Paidoutof special receipts (sales of land, &c.)

on extraordinary expenditure, and a further sum o