Waterways and Water Transport in Different Countries by J. Stephen Jeans
1880. In 1885, the gross tonnage was close on nine millions, and the
1026 words | Chapter 109
net over 6¾ millions.
In 1773, Mr. Volney walked over the country traversed by the present
Suez Canal, for the purpose of endeavouring to reconcile the various
opinions and reports made up to that time as to the practicability of
constructing a ship canal across the isthmus. The conclusion come to
by that engineer was that there would be a difficulty in preventing
the silting up of the harbours, and that for that reason the scheme
was a doubtful one.[145] M. de Lesseps himself appears, in 1855, to have
repudiated the credit of being the author of the project, when he wrote
to a friend a letter in which the following passage occurs:—
“Vous savez qui Linant-Bey est, de puis trente années en Egypt, et
qu’il s’y occupe constamment de travaux de canalisation. Lorsque
j’étais consul au Caire en 1830, c’est lui qui m’a initié à ses projets
de l’ouverteure de l’Isthme de Suez, et qui a fait naître en moi ce
violent désir que je n’ai jamais abandonné au milieu de toutes les
vicissitudes de ma carrière de participer de tous mes moyens à la
réalisation d’une ouvre aussi importante.”[146]
The Suez Canal Company was incorporated in December 1858, with a
capital of 8,000,000_l._, divided into 40,000 shares of 20_l._ each.
Interest at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum was to be paid to the
shareholders during construction. A sinking-fund of 4/100 per cent.
was established, to be a first charge on the profits available for
distribution.
Although the first sod of the canal was cut on the 25th April, 1859,
it was two years before any real progress was made with the work of
excavation. These years were not, however, unemployed. They were
chiefly taken up with the work of preliminary preparation, which, on
such a vast enterprise, was necessarily considerable. One of the most
essential duties required to be undertaken was the construction of
a fresh-water canal, for the purpose of supplying the wants of the
vast number of labourers employed. Much of this labour was forced,
or _corvée_ labour, provided, under engagement, by the Egyptian
Government. In 1864, however, after the works had been about four years
in progress, the Egyptian Government claimed to withdraw the fellaheen,
finding the supply of from 15,000 to 20,000 of the most able-bodied
men in the country a serious tax on their resources. The difference
between the company and the Government on this score was submitted to
the arbitrament of the Emperor Napoleon, who awarded the company an
indemnity of 1,520,000_l._
In order to provide the ways and means for the prosecution of the work,
and to fulfil concessions made to the company, the Egyptian Government
made considerable sacrifices. It had given up its customs dues on the
canal company’s imports, its tolls on the fresh-water canal, its postal
telegraph services, its fishery rights on the canal and lakes, the
hospitals on the isthmus with their appurtenances, the quarries and
port of Mex with their plant, the storehouses of Boulac and Damietta,
and the right to half the proceeds of any of the lands on the maritime
canal, which the company might offer for disposal. These rights the
Egyptian Government recovered in 1869 on the payment of 1,200,000_l._,
represented by the coupons up to 1894, on the 176,600 shares which it
had acquired as an ordinary subscriber. The Egyptians have certainly
not reaped the financial advantages from the canal which they ought
to have done. They parted to England with their 176,600 shares (less
the coupons to 1894) for something under four millions sterling. The
value of these shares, deducting the detached coupons, is now close on
ten millions. Again, in 1880 they sacrificed their royalties, which
amounted to 15 per cent. on the net receipts of the company, to a
French syndicate to cover a debt of 700,000_l._ In the seven following
years, the syndicate received 1,212,025_l._ from this source, and it
has been calculated that if the annual receipts of the canal never
exceeded those of that period, the canal company would have paid in
1968 no less than fourteen millions sterling in respect of the advance
of 700,000_l._! Evidently the Egyptians did not know the value of the
canal when they made this disastrous bargain, although the navigation
receipts had increased from 228,750_l._ in 1870 to 1,599,700_l._ in
1880.[147]
For a number of years after it was fairly started the canal had to
struggle with financial difficulties. The English had subscribed very
little towards its completion, and the French appeared to have some
doubts as to its ultimate success. M. de Lesseps then, as since, was
full of enthusiasm as to the future of the enterprise, and predicted
that it was to be an assured and notable success. Not so, however, his
friends and allies. On the contrary, Prince Napoleon, in presiding at
a banquet given to M. de Lesseps on the 11th February, 1864, declared
that in his opinion “the canal would not be finished, the works
would go to ruin, and nothing would be done.” And then followed this
remarkable prediction: “In fifteen or twenty years, when the Viceroy
shall have shown his powerlessness, there will be some one all ready
who will constitute a new company and make the canal. Do you know who
it will be? It will be the influence, the capital, and the workmen of
the English.” Napoleon was partly right. Egypt found the greater part
of the money required, but it is the shipowners of England who pay the
dividends that enrich the owners of the canal, and enable M. de Lesseps
and his friends to regard their triumph with so much complacency.
The Act of Concession for the construction of the Suez Canal was
granted by the Viceroy, Said Pacha, to M. de Lesseps on the 30th of
November 1854, and was followed, on the 5th of January 1856, by a
second Act, to which were annexed the Articles of Association of a
company for working the concession. The charter thus granted to the
Suez Canal Company gave it a ninety-nine years’ lease (counting from
the date of opening), to dig and work—
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