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EGYPT

As regards the last item, it should be observed that the total cost of the civil administration of the Sudan in 1900 was £E. 332,000. The revenue amounted to <£E.157,000, leaving a deficit of £E. 175,000, which was borne by the Egyptian Treasury. Of this sum £E. 134,000 (representing the amount provided in the budget on this account) was included in the ordinary expenditure of the Egyptian Government for 1900, and the balance of £E. 41,000 was advanced out of the special reserve fund. The Sudan budget is also charged with a certain proportion of the army expenditure, amounting , in 1900 to «£E.283,000. This represents the additional expenditure due to the reoccupation of the Sudan. The real cost of the Sudan to Egypt in 1900 was therefore £E.458,000. The monetary system in force in Egypt dates from 1885, when through the efforts of Sir Edgar Vincent the curplaced on a sound footing. Before that Currency. rency^}was lc multiplicity of foreign silver coinage that circulated throughout the country caused grave inconvenience in all commercial transactions. The present system is based on the single gold standard, silver, nickel, and bronze being used for the subsidiary coinage. The unit is the Egyptian pound, which is divided into 100 piastres, the piastre being again divided into 10 milliemes. The Egyptian pound weighs 8-500 grammes, and contains 875 parts out of 1000 of fine gold. Its approximate value in English currency is £1, 0s. 6d. The subsidiary coinage consists of pieces of 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1 piastres in silver ; 5, 2, and 1 milliemes in nickel; and ^ and millieme in bronze. These coins are token coins, their intrinsic value being considerably less than their nominal value. The amount in circulation is controlled by the Ministry of Finance, and the coins are changed into gold on demand at the Government treasury. They are only legal tender up to 200 piastres. The history of the currency reform in Egypt is interesting as affording a practical example of a system which has been much discussed in connexion with the currency question in India, namely, a gold standard without a gold coinage. The Egyptian pound is practically nonexistent, nearly all that were coined having been withdrawn from circulation. Their place has been taken by foreign gold, principally the English sovereign, which circulates at a value of 971 piastres. In practice the system works perfectly smooth, the gold flowing in and out of the country through the agency of private banking establishments in proportion to the requirements of the circulation. It is, moreover, very economical for the Government. As in most agricultural countries, there is a great expansion of the circulation in the autumn and winter months in order to move the crops, followed by a long period of contracted circulation throughout the rest of the year. Under the above system, the fluctuating requirements of the currency are met without the expense of alternately minting and melting down. Recently paper money has been introduced into the country, this privilege having been conceded by the Government to the National Bank. The notes are of the following values :—£E.100, £E.50, £E.10, £E.5, £E.l, and 50 piastres—and are payable in gold on demand. The issue department is kept wholly distinct from the general business of the Bank. An amount not exceeding one-half of the value of the notes in circulation may be invested in Egyptian stocks, and the balance of the reserve must always be held in gold. The notes are not legal tender, but are accepted by the Government- in payment of taxes. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to state whether this form of currency will become popular among the native population. (j. L. G.)

[army.

Army. The fellah soldier may be aptly likened to a bicycle, which although incapable of standing up alone, is very useful while under the control of a skilful master. As is the soldier, so is the army. It is generally believed that the successes gained in the time of the Pharaohs were due to foreign legions; and from Cambyses to Alexander, from the Ptolemies to Antony (Cleopatra), from Augustus in the 7 th century throughout the Arab period, and from Saladin’s dynasty down to the middle of the 13th century, the military power of Egypt was dependent on mercenaries. The Mamelukes (slaves), imported from the eastern borders of the Black Sea and then trained as soldiers, usurped the tfstory government of Egypt, and held it till 1507, when the Ottomans began to rule. This form of government, speaking generally, endured till the French invasion at the end of the 18th century. British and Turkish troops drove the French out after an occupation of two years, the British troops remaining till 1803. Then Mehemet Ali, a small tobacconist of Kavala, Macedonia, coming with Albanian mercenaries, made himself governor, and later (1811), by massacring the Mamelukes, became the actual master of the country, and after seven years’ war brought Arabia under Egypt’s rule. He subdued Nubia and Scnnar in 1820-22; and then, requiring a larger army, he obtained instructors from France. To them were handed over 1000 Turks and Circassians to be trained as officers, who later took command of 30,000 Sudanese. These died so rapidly in Egypt from pneumonia1 that Mehemet Ali conscripted over 250,000 fellaheen, and in so arbitrary a fashion that many peasants mutilated themselves to avoid the much - dreaded service. The common practice was to place a small piece of nitrate of silver into the eye, which was then kept tightly bandaged till the sight was destroyed. Battalions were then formed of one-eyed men, and of soldiers who, having cut off their right-hand fingers, were made to shoot from the left shoulder. Every man who could not purchase exemption, with the exception of those living in Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez, on becoming 19 years old was liable nominally to 12 years’ service; but many men were kept for 30 or 40 years, in spite of constant appeals. Nevertheless the experiment succeeded. The docile, yet robust and hardy peasants, under their foreign leaders, gained an unbroken series of successes in the first Syrian War; and after the bloody battle of Konia (1832), where the raw Turkish army was routed and the Grand Vizier taken prisoner, it was only European intervention which prevented the Egyptian General, Ibrahim Pasha, from marching unopposed to the Bosphorus. The defeat of the Turkish army at Nezib, in the second Syrian War (1839), showed that it was possible to obtain favourable military results with Egyptians when stiffened by foreigners and well commanded. Ibrahim, the hero of Konia, declared, however, that no native Egyptian ought to rise higher than the rank of sergeant; and in the Syrian campaigns nearly all the officers were Turks or Circassians, as were many of the non-commissioned officers. In the cavalry and artillery many of the privates were foreigners, numbers of the Janissaries who escaped the massacre at Stambul (1832) having joined Mehemet Ali’s army. In the reign of Abbas, who succeeded Mehemet Ali, the Egyptian troops were driven from Nejd, and the Wahabi State recovered its independence. The next Khedive, Said, 1 Similar mortality, though on a smaller scale, recurred in 1889, when Sudanese battalions coming from Suakin were detained temporarily in Cairo.