The more considerable sources of revenue, as well of the Porte at this day, as of the Chalifé while the sovereignty remained with the Arabs, are nearly coëval in their institution with Mohammedism itself.
The innovations which have since had place derive their authority from the dispensing power of the sovereign, or are reconciled with the primitive institutes by the ingenuity of the legal professors.
The most antient tribute due from the subject to government was the zecchât, a tenth of all the permanent productions of the earth. According to its original establishment, this did not affect property under a certain value, and was exigible of an unbeliever in a twofold proportion. It was imposed by Mohammed himself, and applied, as would appear, to the relief of the necessitous; the prophet expressly forbidding his own family to share in it, as unworthy of their rank, and, at the same time, allotting to them a fifth part of the plunder obtained in war. This impost continues to be levied, but is applied to needful expenses or unnecessary prodigality, rather than to soften the lot of the indigent, its original purpose. Ostentatious charities satisfy the scruples of the monarch, and blind the eyes of the people to this misapplication. The tax is not now applicable to land or houses, but to the merchandize imported into the country. The duties on these, when demanded of Mohammedans, are taken under the name of zecchât.
The second impost is the charâge, which signifies the product of lands. It is intended to denote, not only any tax on land, but also on the persons of dhummies, i.e. Christians and Jews; though in the latter case it receives the appellation of Jizie (جزيه), the capitation tax, or salvage for their persons, which otherwise, according to the letter of the Korân, the true believer is not bound to spare.
In modern times, the public revenue of the Porte, which is derived from various sources, is known under the name of Miri; the private one of the emperor is supplied in a different way, and termed Chasné.
The nature of the revenue of each province depended at first, in a great measure, on the manner in which that province was originally acquired; and, even now, the same distinction in some cases operates. Irak was to be protected under one condition of tribute, Egypt under another. The immediate successors of Mohammed appear to have been guided in many instances by sound policy, and to have tempered the rage of fanaticism, by some attention at least to the well-being even of their heretical subjects. The imposts in Egypt, one of their earliest territorial acquisitions, and the inhabitants of which had many of them embraced Islamism, were not distinguished by any remarkable severity; and if that country have since been impoverished and depopulated, it appears not to result from the original institutions, so much as from the abuses which happened at an early period of the Egyptian Chalifat, and which may contaminate the mildest and most reasonable establishments. These abuses, which have long been gradually increasing, are now multiplied to a point, beyond which, consistently with the being of the peasantry, they cannot well be extended.
The principal local tribute is a tax on land of two patackes each foddân, all over the country; which, whether the effect of a compact between the Arabian victor and the natives, or an impost in force under the former government, was continued by Sultan Selim. Taking the cultivable lands in Egypt at two million one hundred thousand acres, this should give the sum of twelve thousand nine hundred purses, or at the present exchange of 630,000l. sterling; but at this time only two-thirds of these lands are actually cultivated, which reduces the sum to 420,000l. On the other hand, however, the Beys are not contented with this legitimate revenue, but insist on receiving in many instances five or six patackes per foddân[12], which again raises this single branch of revenue to a million and a quarter, or even more. There are however some districts in the Upper Egypt always several years in arrear.
The other articles are, the customs of Alexandria, Damiatt, Suez, Cossîr; and what is drawn from the commerce of Africa in its passage by Charjé, Assiût, and at Kahira itself. Of these it is difficult to form any correct idea. The caravan with which I returned to Assiût paid, in duties on the commodities it brought, a sum not less than 150 purses. I estimated the value of those commodities at nearly two thousand three hundred purses, or 115,000l. sterling.
The Jizié is much less considerable than it might be supposed, from the following considerations. 1. That though there be many entire villages of Copts in the Upper Egypt, several of them are rebellious, and pay nothing. 2. The same people is very numerous in the towns; but a great proportion of them consists of ecclesiastics, or of persons in the service of the Beys, and both these descriptions are exempt. The Greeks and Armenians are but few, and many of them pay the Jizié in other places, being only travellers. On the whole, I doubt whether that tax in Egypt amounts to more than fifteen hundred purses. The remaining revenue is made up of casualties; as forfeitures, small imposts, and tolls, passing on the Nile, and other parts of the interior; and above all, the incalculable profit arising from continued plunder of all ranks and denominations. Five, ten, twenty to thirty thousand patackes are demanded, in one day, of the Christians engaged in commerce, at another of the Mohammedans, and at another of the Franks. Advantage was taken of the unprotected state in which the French merchants found themselves after the commencement of the war, and all, except three, were in consequence obliged to leave Kahira, and retire to Alexandria.
I never could learn that the wandering Arabs, or Bedouins, paid any regular tribute. They were often plundered and repulsed when they came in bodies too near the city; but in general the Beys appeared to be inclined to keep them in good humour, for their personal security, in case of being expelled from the government. The article of salt, for there are salines close to the sea, which supply all Egypt with culinary salt, pay a low impost in entering Kahira, and another at Assiût. All the prostitutes, the public baths, the places where brandy is sold, (Chummari,) &c. &c. are under a particular jurisdiction, and pay something to government.