Commercial Geography / A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges

by Jacques W. Redway

In order to add to the cultivable area two great engineering works have been constructed. A barrage and lock control the flow of water at Assiut; a huge dam at Assuan impounds the surplus of the flood season. These structures, it is thought, will increase the productive power of the country about one-fourth. Rice, maize (an Egyptian variety), sugar, wheat, and beans are the staple crops.

Rice is the food of the native people, but the crop is insufficient, and the deficit must be imported. The wheat, maize, and beans are grown for export to Europe, the last named being extensively used for horse-fodder. The sugar-growing industry is protected by the heavy yield and the cheap fellahin labor. The raw sugar is sent to the refineries along the Mediterranean. Onions are exported to the United States.

The cotton-crop is an important factor, and in spite of its own crop the United States is a heavy purchaser of the long-staple Egyptian cotton, which is used in the manufacture of thread and hosiery. The cultivation of tobacco is forbidden by law, but Egyptian cigarettes are an item of considerable importance. They are made of imported Turkish tobacco by foreign workmen. There is a heavy export duty on native tobacco exported, and the ban on the inferior native-grown article is intended to prevent its admixture with the high-grade product from Turkey, and thereby to keep up the standard of the cigarettes.

Egypt is nominally a vassal of Turkey, paying to the Sultan a yearly tribute of $3,600,000. Great Britain's is the real controlling hand, because the Suez Canal is Great Britain's gateway to India. By a purchase of the stock held by a former Khedive, Great Britain secured financial control of the canal, a necessary step from the fact that more than half the trade carried through the canal is British commerce.

The country is deficient in the resources that make most nations powerful. There is neither coal, iron, nor timber available, and these must be imported. Great Britain supplies the first, and Norway the last. Some traffic is carried on the Nile, but railways have been built through the crop-lands. One of these threads the Nile Valley and will become a part of the "Cape to Cairo" route.

Alexandria is the port at which most of the Egyptian commerce lands. Cairo, the largest city of Africa, derives its importance from its position at the head of the Nile delta. It is a favorite winter-resort. Port Saïd and Suez are the terminal ports of the Suez Canal; their commerce is mainly the transit trade of the canal.

Other Independent States.—Most of the independent states of Africa are in a condition of barbarism and have but little importance to the rest of the world. Abyssinia has the natural advantages of gold, iron, pasture-lands, and forestry, and the possibilities of cotton cultivation. Valuable mining concessions have been granted to foreign companies. Ivory, coffee, and gold are shipped to India in exchange for textiles. A railway from the coast is under construction, but all the traffic is carried by mule-trains, mainly to Harrar.

Morocco has an admirable strategic position at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, and is most likely, in time, to become a possession of Spain. There are exported, mainly to Great Britain, beans, almonds, goat-skins, and wool. The goat-skins are sumac-tanned and are still used in making the best book-binding leather. Only a small part of the so-called Morocco leather of commerce is genuine. There are no railways; caravan routes from the Sahara cross the country. Tangier and one or two other ports are open to foreign trade. Coal-oil is the only import from the United States.

The state of Liberia was established for the benefit of freed slaves from the United States. The products are those of tropical Africa, including caoutchouc. Coffee cultivation is extensively carried on, and coffee is the leading export. Monrovia is the chief centre of trade.

North African Possessions.—French influence is paramount in northern Africa. Algeria and Tunis are both French colonies, and the caravan trade of the Sahara is generally tributary to French trade. The region known as the Tell, a strip between the coast and the Atlas Mountains, is the chief agricultural region, and the products are similar to those on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. The ordinary grains are grown for home consumption, but the macaroni wheat crop is manufactured into macaroni paste for export. The fruit-crop, especially the olive, date, and grape, and their products, is exported.