Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-29
Effects of the EgyptianWar on Trade.

The prospect of a speedy termination
OF the Egyptian difficulty does not i'm
prove. Indeed, it looks now as though
England has On hand a serious war
which ls not likely to be brief, even if
no general European complication arises
from 1t. Meantime the industries of
Egypt are grlevously deranged; trade is
at a stand still, all manufacturing ope.
ratlons are suspended, and agriculture is
largely interrupted. The geographical
and the social characteristics of Egvpt
are peculiar, and of such nature that
war affects the country far more disas.
trously than would be possible in anv
other land. The Europeans who have
been driven out furnished most of tbe
capital Tor ali commercial and industrial
enterprises, filled most of the positione
acquiring scientific knowledge or me-
Chanical skill and controlled the majority
of the means for making productive and
profitable the labor of the native masses.
In their absence G speedy revival of pros
perity is impossible, even if the war
should end at once.
Within the past twenty years the agri.
cultural products of Egypt have been
nearly trebled by means of the capital
and machinery introduced from Europe.
The irrigation and consequent cultiva.
ton of vast areas of sugar and cotton
and corn land have been made possible
by the introduction of steam pumps and
other modern irrigation machinery. Were
the natives able to operate such ma
chinerY they can not now do so for lack
OF coal, and so to q serious extent thew
cannot produce the crops on which their
prosperity depends. The cotton ginning
factories and steam presses by means
OF which the cotton crop of Egypt has
been made fit for profitable expectation.
were introduced by Europeans and large
ly operated by them. The same is true
Of the sugar mills and the RAILWAYS and
other means of rapid and economical
transportation. The natives themselves
are incapable of operating the railways
or of conducting an export trade, were
such trade possible IN Egypt in time of
war. AS consequence the gathered
crops are lying in the interior
unsold; cultivation is largely suspended,
and thousands of native work people
are threatened with starvation. The
commercial and industrial arrangements
incident to the war are not confined to
GgypJ. GV6u IL NJ udlAh OC1dllS Tue
Suez canal, and there is no suspension
of traffic through it, England cannot but
suffer severely, though indirectly, in her
commercial and manufacturing interests.
Fully two.thirds of the cotton crop of
Egypt, averaging $50 1000, 900 pounds,
has hitherto gone to England. In the
Bolton district alone five million spindles
are employed on Egyptian cotton and in
the whole of England some twenty-five
thousand workpeople are employed upon
this staple. The stoppage of the supply
cannot but affect them disastrously. The
large dependence of English indus.
try upon Egyptian products is fur
ther illustrated in the case of cotton seed,
about nine nilliop dollars worth of
which is imported annually. Last year
Hull alone took 10000 tons. and in its
crushing twenty-five hundred men and
boys were employed. Still more serious
will be the effect of the stoppage of the
supply of Egyptian cotton seed upon
English agricuIturists, who depend very
largely upon cotton seed oil cake for
feeding their cattle. The English soap
boilers use about fifty thousand tons Of
Egyptian cotton seed oil year, and
must likewise severely feel cutting off
of the supply from that region. England