Bankrupts and Brokers 79
Meantime, the country was governed autocratically.
Ismail, in spite of his European culture, ruled as an
Oriental despot. His Foreign Minister, Nubar, was no
more than a financial agent. His principal administrator
was the Inspector-General (Mufettish) Ismail Sadik, who
was only a collector of taxes, and a very cruel and corrupt
one at that. When the Mufettish had become too wealthy
and too wily, Ismail took him for a drive and deposited him
on a steamer, where he was despatched. Ismail's govern-
ment was still that of the bowstring and the kurbash.
But though Effendina was an Oriental tyrant, he none
the less forced on a modern reconstruction of the medieval
Moslem social system of Egypt. The social structure
was still wholly based on domestic slavery, on seclusion
of women, on patriarchal power over the family, and on
the other foundations of the Islamic State. Slavery, that
had so long kept alive Mameluke rule, was still the tap-
root of the ruling class. Slave boys, bought for some
£40, had an open career to power and wealth. Slave
girls, divided into four classes—Caucasian, Abyssinian,
Galla, and Negro—were the mothers, mistresses,,and
maids of the rulers. Domestic slavery, with its release
after seven years and its good prospects, was still much
preferred to domestic service. But the harem and the
slave market were already being superseded by a change
of economic conditions. An educated wife and an emanci-
pated working girl were becoming better value than a
harem full of elderly female relations and unruly young
slaves all entitled to maintenance for life. Slavery was
bound to die a natural death from economics and educa-
tion. But meantime the campaign of our philanthropists
against the slave trade—a campaign that could neither
cut off the sources of supply nor convert the centres of
demand—often did little more than aggravate the abuses