It is well known how, on the day after the Battle of Omdurman, a Greek arrived in the town and opened a store with all kinds of goods brought somehow from Suakin. This man is now a prosperous and wealthy merchant, with large shops in Khartoum and Halfa, and a finger in every sort of commercial undertaking. He is no longer alone in the field. Whether it be true or not that trade follows the flag, undoubtedly the Greek trader follows the British flag. They are said to be principally Ionian Islanders, so perhaps they have a hereditary liking for it. Just as from Alexandria to Halfa every town in Egypt has its Greek traders, carrying on business as storekeepers, dealers, and innkeepers, so, from Halfa to Gondokoro, from Suakin to El Obeid, every town in the Soudan has its Greeks. They are ubiquitous; in Khartoum and Omdurman alone they number about 800. One wonders what they were all doing before the Soudan was open. Some of them, no doubt, stayed on right through the Khalifa’s time.
As a vulture scents carrion from afar, so the Greek scents any possible opening for trade with the natives. The gum trade, the feather trade, the corn trade, all are in his hands. There is nothing that a native wants, however humble, from beads and kerosene-tins to silver, that he will not sell, exactly in the form required. Naturally a gambler, there is no speculation that he will not undertake, no risk he will not run. He can stand any climate, he can live in native huts, and eat native food. He may be unscrupulous in his dealings, and he has to be sharply watched by those in authority, but as a trade pioneer in a new country he is invaluable, and his enterprise contributes largely to make life possible for more exacting Europeans in desolate places. Some day, perhaps, when the Arab has mastered his methods of trade, he will find his match, but at present he holds the field.
CHAPTER XXI
TAXATION, REVENUE, AND EXPENDITURE
At the beginning of every year the Soudan Budget, with the estimates of receipts and expenditure for the year, has to be submitted to the Egyptian Council of Ministers. The total amount to be granted to the Soudan from the Egyptian revenues is then decided, and any consequent alterations in the Budget made. The Governor-General and the Financial Secretary are responsible for seeing that the total sum so granted by Egypt is not exceeded, but while this limit is observed, credits can be transferred from one head to another without reference to Cairo. Any special or unforeseen expenditure can be defrayed by Egypt by special grants sanctioned by the Egyptian Council of Ministers, and the Egyptian Minister of Finance has at all times the right of inspection, audit, and supervision of the Soudan Government accounts. Practically, of course, this means that the finances of the Soudan are subject to the control of the British Financial Secretary and the British Consul-General at Cairo, but that the Soudan Government exercises a very wide discretion as to the disposal of its revenues once realized.
The revenues of the Soudan are therefore at present made up from three sources: first, taxation, fees, licenses, etc.; secondly, the receipts of certain earning departments—e.g., railway, steamers, post, and telegraphs; and thirdly, the contribution from Egypt. Of these the third is still, it must be confessed, the most important, but the first is steadily growing. Strictly speaking, the second should not be included, for although the earnings of these departments are materially increasing, and although without them very little could be done, their annual accounts do not as yet show a profit, for various reasons that will be explained.
The principles of taxation are not new. Many of the taxes are the same in kind as those which were formerly in force not only under Egyptian rule, but also under the Khalifa’s. It was wisely decided that no innovations should be introduced based on Western notions, unless they were unavoidable. The taxes are of a kind to which the people have long been accustomed, but, of course, great care is taken that they shall be fixed at a moderate rate, and that no one shall pay more than is actually required by law. It was the uncertainty of the amount to be paid, the illegal imposts levied by the collector on his own account, and the dates at which they were collected, that made the old taxes so often cruel and ruinous. The uncertainty of the amount to be paid had, however, an attraction for the Oriental. It varied with the circumstances of the year. The Government wished to get all they could, and in a good year they exacted a most excessive amount; but in a bad year they took little or nothing at all. According to the Western system a fixed moderate amount has to be paid every year, and a whole or partial failure of the crop is not considered any excuse. The latter system is, of course, far the most just and economically sound, but it lacks the elasticity of the other. It is the constant endeavour of European administrators in Oriental countries to endeavour to combine the advantages of both systems. In the Soudan the system of petitions direct to the Governor-General is a means to secure this result. When adequate cause is shown, he is able to remit taxation wholly or partly, and there have been several cases in which he has done so, notably in Berber and Dongola Provinces in 1900, when the low Nile caused a great deal of land to be thrown out of cultivation. Of course, such remissions are inclined to play havoc with a Budget framed on careful estimates. It cannot be helped, and at any rate it is only one of many difficulties which have to be encountered in balancing a Soudan Budget. Unforeseen expenditure often becomes necessary, but happily during the last two or three years the receipts have been increasing unexpectedly also.
Although the taxes remain the same in principle, a comparison with the former state of things shows the difference in the methods of assessment and collection to be so great as to amount to a revolution. Then, as now, the Government in the Soudan was, according to the general rule in the East, the admitted owner of the soil, and the cultivator had to pay a tax amounting to one-tenth of the produce for its use. The actual sum to be paid included all other taxes, as house-tax, animal-tax, and so on. Each district was rated at so much in the Budget; this sum was divided among the villages and communes until the individual cultivator was reached. The nomad and other tribes which did not cultivate the soil were assessed at an annual tribute, according to their wealth in camels, cattle, and horses. In Berber and Dongola the tax was not on the produce of the land, but on the instruments of irrigation. It varied according to the instrument and according to the quality of land. One sakieh was calculated to be capable of watering 8 acres, and if more land was cultivated an increase was made in the tax. It has already been mentioned how these water-wheels were often taxed in a sum far beyond their possible earning capacity. It was the same with the assessment of the districts and the tribute of the tribes. The official estimates were seldom or never realized as far as the public exchequer was concerned (although the bullying tax-collectors took much more for themselves). Arrears accumulated, in spite of every effort, and became a direct incentive to discontent and revolt. In the year 1879 the deficiencies of the amounts actually received below those estimated ranged in the different provinces from 10 to 60 per cent. The figures of the Budget were, in fact, pure fancy, especially when the country was disturbed. But the thing was even worse than it looked. Districts and tribes, though they might not pay all that was asked, paid a great deal more than they could afford, and consequently, as the money had to be found somehow, they found it by indulging in the only prosperous trade—that of slavery. In other words, the Soudan lived largely by expending its capital.
Owing to the alteration in the boundaries of the Soudan, it is somewhat difficult to calculate what the amount raised in taxation from the present territories amounted to. As nearly as can be made out, it was about £360,000 a year nominally, with a nominal deficit on the whole administration in the same provinces of £70,000 a year. Absolutely nothing was spent in the development of the country; salaries, rations, and clothes for the army of occupation made up almost the whole of the expenditure.
As compared to this, the actual sums raised in the Soudan by taxation during the last four years have been as follows: