Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/810

786 786 EGYPT [STATISTICS. system has been greatly enlarged and improved, but a still better result is anticipated from the barrage of the Nile, a plan projected by M. M on gel and now about to be carried out for the khedive by Mr Fowler. In 1871 the work of building a breakwater to defend the New Harbour at Alexandria from the seas caused by the constant south west winds was begun. The outer breakwater extends above two miles across the mouth of the harbour, inclosing | an area of 1400 acres of calm water. The structure rises 7 feet above the highest sea-level, and is of a uniform width of 20 feet. Harbour works have also been constructed at Suez. At a cost of over 180,000, fourteen fine light houses have been erected, seven on the Mediterranean and seven rn the lied Sea, whereas at the beginning of the reign of the khedive there was but one. Telegraph lines (begun by the enterprise of Said), have been set through out Egypt, covering nearly 6000 miles, and putting Alexandria into direct communication with Khartoom ; and this branch of the public service is managed by English officials. Submarine telegraphs also bring Egypt into communication with Candia and thence with Constanti nople and Otranto, and with Malta and thence with England, France, &c. The post-office was bought by the Govern ment in 1865, and under the management of an English post official has been greatly improved. In about 70 towns and villages offices have been established, and several mails a day are despatched from the chief places. The manufactures of Egypt have been in a declining state for several centuries. Mehemet Ali tried to promote them, by establishing large manufactories of cotton, silk, and woollen goods, tarbooshes, &c., and, especially in Upper Egypt, sugar-refineries. Ibrahim Pasha was much opposed to his father s policy, and in pursuance of his own views he laid out extensive plantations of olive and other trees, erected powerful steam-engines for the irrigation of his lands, and on all his estates endeavoured to encourage agriculture. It cannot be doubted that had he lived the correctness of his conviction that Egypt is an agricultural, not a manufacturing, country would under his rule have been fully verified. Mehemet Ali introduced cotton and largely cultivated it ; the Turkish grandees found that from it they could extract more gain than from other field produce, and large tracts were speedily devoted to its culture. The necessity, however, of excluding the waters of the Nile has caused several destructive inundations; and so long as the cotton growth remained a monopoly of the pasha it was no means of enrichment to the producer. Now, however, that the monopoly is abolished, the trad 3 in cotton is greatly increasing, and this produce will undoubtedly become every year a more important item in the wealth of the country. The old restrictions upon agri culturists have been more or less done away ; and the Government, whilst not wholly abandoning Mehemet Ali s views on manufactures, is yet alive to the paramount importance of affording every encouragement to agriculture. The cotton crop in 1875 extended over 871,847 feddans ( = acres, nearly) and produced 2,615,541 quintals (of 1101t&amp;gt;) of ginned staple, 1,954,555 ardebbs (of 5 bushels) of seed, and 3,749,446 loads of cotton sticks, altogether reaching a total value of about twelve millions and a quarter. The wheat crop in the same year was estimated at 6,662,632 ardebbs, of the value of E7, 995,158; maize (durah), 10,502,715 ardebbs, =E8,193,000 ; beans, 4,575,273 ardebbs, = E4,575,273 ; barley, 3,103,085 ardebbs, = E2,394,000 ; rice, 98,521 ardebbs, - E738,908. The other crops of Egypt arc chiefly clover, sugar-cane, flax, hemp, tobacco, hinne, and indigo. The revenue is derived chiefly from the land-tax, the tax oil date-trees, trade licences, the customs, the tobacco duty, railways, and the Mukabalah (of which an account will be given), o,nd village annuities. Of these the land-tax is the principal item, amounting to nearly half the total revenue ; but this will be considerably reduced when the Mukabalah comes to an end (in 1885). The whole revenue may at present roughly be placed at 10,500,000. It is very difficult to estimate the exact amount of direct taxation on the population. One writer places it at 25s. per head per annum; whilst a recent report states that, including the Mukabalah, the annual payment of taxes has lately reached 4 ! It is certain the taxation at present exceeds the possible returns of the land, and that the fellaheen are compelled to borrow money to pay the taxes. The items of expenditure may thus be roughly summarized : general public administration, 1,300,000; civil list, 600,000; tribute to the Porte, 700,000; army, 700,000; the the rest being devoted to the payment of the debt. The following is an abridgment of the Egyptian budget for 1876 : Revenue. Purses. Land tax 839,500 Tax on Date-trees 36,934 Licences 82,346 Mukabalah 314,858 Customs 124,737 Railways 193,207 Locks, ports, &c, 32,313 Salt 50,000 Tobacco 51,483 Octroi, various duties, &c, 345,276 Soodan revenues 30,000 2,100,654 Expenditure. Tribute to Constantinople 133,635 Civil list of the Khedive 60,000 Allowance to the Prince Heretier 6,000 Allowance to Halim Pasha 11,700 Appointments of the Cabinet Ministers, &c 219,156 Yarious pensions and other expenditure 73,518 Conseil d Etat, Court of Appeal, Court of First ) g 2 ^ 9 Instance at Cairo, and Chamber of Notables ) Irregular troops 5,792 Egyptian Museum, Ismailia Canal, Archives, Pro- ) g ,, visions, Stores, &c ) Customs 5,823 Foreign Agents 2,881 Appointments and expenses of the Provinces of ) ,, * Upper and Lower Egypt ) Appointments and expenses of Cairo, Alexandria,. | 7 g ^ni Damietta, Rosetta, Suez, &c., with Octroi Expenses of the Rooznameh 38,989 Locks, barrages, Soodan Railway, &c 48,581 Interest on Kooziuimeh Bonds 18,000 Interest on Sue/; Canal Shares 19,500 Annuities and loans (redemptions and interest) 932, 151 1,751,451 During the last fifteen years Egypt has acquired the enor mous national debt of about 80,393.000. The attempt to Europeanize the country has entailed a vast expenditure. Public works have been carried out at an altogether unnecessary rate of speed, and European contractors have been employed who have not scrupled to drive bargains ex ceedingly favourable to themselves and ruinous to the Egyptian Exchequer. To these causes of expenditure must be added the dishonesty and extravagance of the Government officials, the waste of money on works which have proved unproductive and useless, and the heavy damages given against the khedive in the extraordinary award of the late emperor Napoleon as arbitrator in the dispute with the Suez Canal Company. To meet the heavy expenses resulting from these causes, five loans have from time to time been raised. The first was borrowed by Said Pasha in 1862, and amounted to only 3,292,800 nominal, to be repaid in thirty years, interest 7 per cent, and sinking fund 1 per cent. The present viceroy then raised the 1864 loan of 5,804,200 nominal, with interest and sinking fund at 7 and 3 87 per cent., redeemable in 15 years. The next loan, of 1868, redeemable in 1898, was for 11,890,000 nominal (of which only 7,193,334 was received), with apparent interest and sinking fund of 7 and 1 per cent, really 11 56 and 1 68 pt-r cent, oil amount received, or altogether 13 j per cent.