Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/653

 MONET, "WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES.

617

butes about 70 per cent., and the rest is divided between Turkey, France, Austria, Italy, and Greece, in descending proportions.

The subjoined tabular statement shows the total value of the ex- ports from Egypt to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce and manufactures into Egypt, in each of the five years 1865 to 1869 : —

Exports from Egypt to

Imports of British Home

Years

Great Britain

Produce into Egypt

£

&

1865

21,773,250

5,990,943

1866

15,368,824

7,556,185

1867

15.198,292

8,198,111

1868

17,581.616

6;056,404

1869

16,796,233

7,982,714

The magnitude of the commercial transactions as regards the exports from Egypt to the United Kingdom is mainly owing to the costly transit trade which ilows from India through Egypt. The single article, raw silk, enumerated among Egyptian exports to the United Kingdom, but chiefly Indian produce, was of the average annual value of five-and-a-half millions sterling in the years 1865-69. In 1868 the value Avas 5,990,434/.; but it fell to 4,916,777/. in 1869. The second staple article of export from, or through, Egypt to the United Kingdom is raw cotton, the amount of which, however, was for some years on the decrease. It was of the declared value of 13,906,641/. in 1865 ; but sank to 9,200,580/. in 1866; to 7,200,291/. in 1867; and to 6,303,206/. in 1868. In 1869, the exports increased again to 8,568,782/.

The imports from the United Kingdom into Egypt comprise the chief articles of British produce and manufacture, foremost among them cotton goods, of the value of 3,476,097/. in 1868, and of 4,739,827/. in 1869. The greater part of these imports from the United Kingdom pass merely in transit through Egypt on the way to British India.

The commerce of Egypt derived great advantages from the con- struction of the Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, opened for navigation November 17, 1869. The Canal was constructed by a French Company at a cost of 16,000,000/., upon a capital raised as follows : —

Original shares (holders principally French).

Shares of Khedive (no interest for 30 years).

Jsine per cent, preference shares.

Arbitrators' award paid Khedive (no interest for 30 years)

Lottery shares

&

4,000,000 4,000,000 4,000,000 3,500,000 1,000,000

16,500,000