Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/440

 proprietors themselves, who no longer pay the taxes in kind, have certainly benefited by the new order of things. At the same time a new social class has been constituted, that of the agricultural proletariates, a multitude of hand to mouth labourers, who have no longer any share in the land, and who are obliged to accept employment on any terms in order to live. The lauds of dispossessed peasants, nearly all confiscated for non-payment of taxes, have enlarged the personal domain of the sovereign, of various members of his family, and of many high dignitaries of State. The Suez Canal Company has also become one of these large landed proprietors. All the estates that under sundry titles have fallen into the hands of

the khedival family are estimated at about one-fourth of all the arable land in Egypt. Between Assiut and Bedrashein nearly all the soil belongs to the Khedive. Another fourth of the land consists of the so-called ushuri, or "tithings," held in absolute right by those cultivating them. On the other hand the lands of the poor, divided into small lots round the villages, and comprising, with the commercial possessions, about half of the country, are burdened with the karaj, a variable tax, which may be increased at the pleasure of the Government, but which still averages about one-fifth, as in the time of Joseph. On paying this tax the occupier of the