著者

西谷 進

出版者

社会経済史学会

雑誌

社会経済史学 (ISSN:00380113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.37, no.2, pp.113-134,216, 1971-08-20 (Released:2017-08-03)

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In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Egypt became a British colony as a result of the financial dificulties. It is the purpose of this paper to clarify the internal condition of Egypt which led to such a situation. At that time, there were three plans of grand scale: the Delta Barrages; the Alexandria, Cairo, and Suez Railroad; and the Suez Canal. It was financially impossible for the Egyptian government to materialize these plans in a short time, but the government ventured on these projects in a short period of fifteen years. it has been explained that such a venture was med possible by the changes of the ruling class (Khedive), the balance of power among European nations, and the international rivalry. We would, however, like to explain it by analyzing the judgement on the economic effects of these projects on the part of the Egyptian government. The Delta Barrages were constructed in the first place, because the economic effects of the plan would be superior to those of others, especially the railroad construction. This judgement was made on the assumption that the government would be able to maintain the monopoly of farm products. As a result of the collapse of the monopoly, the economic advantages of the Delta Barrages were bound to declin. In order to supplement the revenue, it became necessary to build the railroad and obtain income from the transit of foreign goods and passengers. It was, however, necessary to obtain foreign loans to construct the railroad at that time, and the dependance on foreign capital became inevitable. The construction of the Suez Canal would, it was anticipated, bring a considerable amount of income with a relatively small amount of investment. Actually, the Egyptian government had to spend more money than it had been estimated, and this again augmented the dependance on the foreign capital.