“I think he is sincerely trying to improve Egypt and the Egyptians. Of course a despot, reared in Oriental prejudices, is slow to see that you can't make a nation except by making men; that you can't make a rich nation unless individuals have free scope to accumulate property. I confess that the chief complaint I heard up the river was, that no one dared to show that he had any money, or to engage in extensive business, for fear he would be 'squeezed.'.rdquo;
“So he would be. The Khedive has some sixteen sugar-factories, worked by forced labor, very poorly paid. They ought to be very profitable.”
“They are not.”
“Well, he wants more money, at any rate. I have just heard that he is resorting to a forced loan, in the form of bonds. A land-owner is required to buy them in the proportion of one dollar and a half for each acre he owns; and he is to receive seven per cent, interest on the bonds. In Cairo a person is required to take these bonds in a certain proportion on his personal property. And it is said that the bonds are not transferable, and that they will be worthless to the heirs. I heard of this new dodge from a Copt.”
“I suppose the Khedive's friends would say that he is trying to change Egypt in a day, whereas it is the work of generations.”
When we returned to the dahabeëh we had a specimen of “personal government.” Abd-el-Atti was standing on the deck, slipping his beads, and looking down.
“What has happened?”
“Ahman, been took him.”
“Who took him?”
“Police, been grab him first time he go 'shore, and lock him up.”