Bankrupts and Brokers 67
lished economic system of Egypt and of the East.
Experiments in Free Trade and laissez-faire that were
possibly beneficial to the Early Victorian English, were
baleful to the Pharaonic agricultural arrangements of the
fellaheen. Foreign trade, of course, grew rapidly with
the abolition of the monopolies, but it could not be taxed
in view of the capitulations, and it killed such infant
industries as were still alive. Said's political Liberal-
ism and personal liberalities were, indeed, burning the
candle at both ends. His experiments in European
engineering were too expensive to be combined with his
Asiatic extravagances. His drawing-room in the Abdin
Palace cost 10,000,000 francs to decorate; but his
public enterprises in the end cost the country even more.
For, to build a railway from Alexandria to Cairo and
Suez, he had recourse to a private loan in Paris (1858).
His Suez Canal commitment cost Egypt its first public
loan from Frohling and Goschen in London (1862). The
terms of this loan—££3,300,000 at seven per cent.,
taken at seventy-five—were ominous. When Said died
(1863) there was a foreign debt negotiated on this sort
of terms amounting to about £10,000,000. Some British
writers, including Lord Cromer, assess it at only some
£3,000,000. But this seems to leave out of account the
floating debt.
As much of the proceeds of this debt had been spent
upon the Suez Canal, there was nothing in the amount
of the total at this date that was very detrimental to the
future Egyptian nation from a financial point of view.
But from a political point of view, it would have been
better for Egypt had Said spent all the money in drawing-
room decoration. For the Suez Canal concession had
converted British interest in Egypt from a vague realisa-
tion of the possible importance of the country in empire