| Maskat (customs) German crowns | $180,000 |
| Mattra (Matrah) | 60,000 |
| Maskat and Mattra (octroi from the interior) | 20,000 |
| Average receipts from other parts of Africa and Arabia | 20,000 |
| Zanzibar (customs and poll-tax) | 160,000 |
| Total in German crowns | $440,000 |
In 1811 Captain Smee computes the revenue of Zanzibar at $60,000 per annum, adding, however, that he considers it to be much more. In 1846 M. Guillain gives the revenue arising from customs on coffee and cloves, Indian rice and melted butter, and divers taxes on shops, indigo, dyes, thread-makers, silk-spinners, and so forth, as follows—
| Total of Oman | $136,600 | |
| ” African dominions | 349,000 | |
| Grand total | $485,600 | = 2,500,000 francs. |
The author, who appears to have been ably assisted in his inquiries by M. Loarer, also states that in the days of Sayyid Said’s father the farming of the customs at Zanzibar represented $25,000, from which it gradually rose to $50,000; $60,000; $80,000; $100,000; $105,000; $120,000; $147,000; $157,000; and $175,000 in 1846. We may safely fix the revenue in 1857 at a maximum of £90,000 per annum. The expenses of navy, army, and ‘civil service,’ and the personal expenditure of the Prince were easily defrayed out of this sum, whilst the surplus must have been considerable. The income might easily have been increased, and the outlay have been diminished by improving the administration; but the Sayyid had ‘some time before his death reached that epoch of life when age and weariness determine men to consider the status quo as the supreme wisdom.’
Under the new régime affairs did not improve. An Indian firm farmed the customs throughout the Zanzibar dominions for the annual sum of $190,000, and the following is the official statement of the revenues derived by ‘His Highness the Sultan,’[[70]] in 1863-4.
| Customs dues | $190,000 | |
| Pemba dues | 6,000 | |
| Poll-tax of Makhádim | 10,000 | |
| Private clove plantations | 15,000 | |
| Total | $221,000 | |
| Deduct subsidy paid to Maskat | 40,000 | |
| Balance | $181,000 |
The income, thus sadly fallen off, was hardly enough for the necessaries of the ruler, and left no margin available for improvements or public works. At last the government, which by treaty is unjustly debarred from imposing export or harbour dues, or even from increasing the import duties, devised a modified system of land-tax, charging 5 per cent. per annum on cloves, and 2 pice (= 3/4d.) on mature cocoa-trees whose estimated average value is $1. This, if levied, would produce about $40,000 per annum.
Since that time prosperity has returned to the Island. The return of imports by the Custom House rose from £245,981 in 1861-2 to £433,693 in 1867-8.[[71]] One half of the trade was in the hands of English subjects, and the Committee remarks that Zanzibar is the chief market of the world for ivory and copal; that the trade in hides, oils, seeds, and dyes is on the increase, whilst cotton, sugar, and indigo, to which may be added cocoa, loom in the distance.
CHAPTER VII.
A CHRONICLE OF ZANZIBAR.—THE CAREER OF THE LATE ‘IMAM,’ SAYYID SAID.
‘Mais, comme le livre n’est point une œuvre de fantaisie, comme il traite de questions sérieuses, et qu’il s’addresse à des intérêts durables, je me résigne, pour lui, à l’inattention du moment, et j’attendrai patiemment pour que l’avenir lui ramène son heure, lui refasse, pour ainsi dire, une nouvelle opportunité.’—M. Guillain.