The economic state of Egypt before the Campaign

03The economic state of Egypt before the Campaign

Agriculture

• Land belonged to the state, represented by the Ottoman sultan; peasants cultivated it with a right of use after paying taxes.
• Taxes were collected by multazims (tax farmers): each received an iltizam — a privilege to collect the taxes of a certain area in return for a fixed sum paid to the treasury, keeping any surplus for himself.
• The multazim took a piece of land exempt from tax, known as the wasiyya.
• The multazims did not care to develop agriculture, and the state neglected irrigation and strengthening the dykes, so agriculture deteriorated.

Industry

• Industry deteriorated because it remained simple manual work; machinery did not enter it as it had in Europe.
• Craftsmen were organised into guilds (tawa'if) that were the link with the government in collecting taxes and supervising production.
• Each guild grouped the members of one trade, and every man had his standing under the leadership of the sheikh of the guild.

Trade

• Egypt lost greatly when the East–West trade route shifted to the Cape of Good Hope.
• Its trade links were limited to the Mediterranean basin, Sudan, Abyssinia, the Arab lands and Yemen.
• Internal trade suffered from insecurity and the fierce conflict between the military factions and the Mamluks.
• Foreign merchants had influence over trade because of their organisation and because of the commercial privileges they enjoyed — facilities granted by the Ottoman State to foreign subjects in Egypt.
• Sending the tribute and gifts to the Ottoman sultan caused further economic deterioration.