Monopoly in agriculture

02Monopoly in agriculture

Changing the system of ownership

• Over six years (1808–1814) Muhammad Ali confiscated the lands of the multazims and registered them in the name of the state, thereby abolishing the iltizam system.
• This changed the conditions of agricultural ownership and possession and secured the largest possible agricultural income.

Measures to develop agriculture

• Introducing new farming methods that raise output and cut effort; bringing in skilled instructors and defining duties and responsibilities.
• Paying attention to agricultural education: bringing agricultural experts from abroad and founding a school of agriculture.
• Improving irrigation: digging canals and channels and building barrages — most importantly the Delta Barrages (Qanatir al-Khayriya) — so that the lands of Lower Egypt passed from basin irrigation to perennial irrigation.
• Introducing new plants such as mulberry for rearing silkworms, and indigo, and improving the cultivation of cotton.

How agricultural monopoly was applied

• The peasant was supplied with the seeds, livestock and tools he needed, and their cost was deducted from the value of his crop.
• Peasants were obliged to grow the crops the government decided.
• The government received the crops at the price it fixed.