The Suez Canal project

07The Suez Canal project

Approval of the project

• It was among the most important projects to appear in the atmosphere of the fall of monopoly and the entry of foreign investment, to ease the passage of trade between the East's marketing, consumption and raw-material zones and the West's European production zones.
• Muhammad Ali had rejected it, saying "I do not want a Bosphorus in Egypt" — an allusion to the Turkish strait that had caused European intervention in Ottoman politics to guarantee freedom of navigation.
• Said Pasha agreed to grant the concession to dig the canal to his French friend Ferdinand de Lesseps, with the company's monopoly of its exploitation for 99 years from its opening to navigation in November 1869.

The most important conditions of the concession

• The Egyptian government relinquished all the lands needed to dig the canal, exempt from taxes.
• The government dug a fresh-water canal to supply the workers.
• The company could expropriate privately owned land needed for the project in return for fair compensation.
• The company could extract raw materials from state mines and quarries without tax.
• The government provided four-fifths of the workers, all Egyptian.
• Egypt received 15% of the net profits in return for the lands and privileges.
• Egypt received 44% of the company's shares in order to settle debts.
• Despite its commercial importance, the developments of its execution made it a manifestation of foreign intervention and of the weakness of political will.