The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-04-20
A GIGANTIC SPECULATOR.
The HhedIVe Of EgyPI-HIs Vast Posses
siOns and His VAST Debts.


sIOns and His Vast Debts.
DR.. Field, in a letter from the orient,
writes Not satisfied with managing
the affairs of government, the khedive,
with that reckless spirit which charac-
terizes him, is deeply involved in all
sorts of private enterprises. He is a
sPecUlator on a gigantic scale, going into
every sort of mercantile adventure.
He is a great real estate operator. He
owns whole squares in the new parts of
Cairo and Alexandria, on which he is
constantly building houses, besides buy
ing houses built by others. He builds
hotels and opera houses, and runs steam
boats and railroads, like a more magnif-
cent, because a more royal Jim Fisk
The steamer on which we crossed the
Mediterranean from COnstantinOple to
Alexandria belonged to the khedive, and
the railroad that brought us to Cairo,
and so does the hotel in which we are
lodged here, and the steamer in which
we went up the Nile,
Nor is he limited in his enterprises 10
steamers and railroads. He is a great
cotton and sugar planter. He owns a
large part of the land in Egypt, on which
he has any number of plantations. His
immense sugar factories, on which he
has expended millions of pounds, may
be seen all along the valley of the Nile
and he exports cotton by the ship load
from the port of Alexandria.
A man who is thus cup to his eyes
in speculation, who tries to do every
thing himself, must do many things bad
ly, or at least imperfectly. He cannot
possibly supervise every detail, however
he may try; and his agents have not the
stimulus of a personal interest to make
the most of their opportunity. / asked
very often as l went up the Nile, if
these great sugar factories, which / saw,
paid, and was uniformly answered NO."
but was told at the same time, as the
opinion of all concerned, that they
would pay in PTivale hands-if managed
by those who had a personal stake in
saving every needless expense, and in
creasing every possible source of income.
| But the khedive, they told me, is cheated
on every side, and in hundred ways,
And even if there were not actual fraud,
I the system is one which necessarily in
wolves immense waste and loss. Here
in Cairo I find it the universal opinion
that almost all the khedive's specula-
| tiOns have been gigantic failures, and
| that they are at the bottom of the
| IlndICldl IIOuDi6 WHICH, HOW threatens
Egypt.
Such is the present financial condition
of the khedive and OF Egypt. Icou-
pie the two together; for although an
attempt is made tOdistinguish them, and
we hear that although Egypt is nearly
! bankrupt, yet the khedive is personally
" the richest man III the world !" But
! the accounts are so mixed that it is very
| 6ihicuIt tO SpDarate them Therp IL M
| doubt that the khedive has immense
possessions in his hands; but he is, al
| the same time, to use a commercial
phrase, enormously "extended;" he i.
loaded with debt, and has to borrow
money at ruinOus rates; and if his es
tate were suddenly wound up, and {
receiver" appointed to administe
upon it, it is extremely doubtful wha
| UouId he