138 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS [No. 88 (C) COMMERCE ( 1 ) DOMESTIC (a) Principal Branches of Trade The domestic commerce of the Anglo - Egyptian Sudan consists chiefly in the collection, for the purpose of export, of the products of the country already enumerated (see above, pp . 96-115 ) . There is also a certain amount of purely internal trade in such products as well as inrough pottery of local manufac ture and in the various articles which are sold in the bazaars . At the ports and larger towns there are Greek and, in smaller numbers, Syrian and Indian merchants, who deal in goods imported from Europe, Egypt, and Abyssinia .

( 6 ) Towns and Markets The three towns of Khartum , Khartum North , and Omdurman, at the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, togetherform the headquarters of the trade of the Sudan. Khartum , which lies in the angle formed . by the two rivers , had in 1917 a population of about 23,000 . The capital of the country and the seat of Government , it is a largely Europeanised town, with wide streets and fine buildings . It contains many shops and stores, but its market ( suk ) is smaller and more expensive than that of Omdurman, with which town it is connected by a Government-owned ferry . There is also a steam tramway .

Khartum North (formerly called Halfaya') lies on the right bank of the Blue Nile, opposite Khartum .

There are Egyptian army barracks,a customs-house, and storehouses and workshops, including the head quarters, workshops and dockyard of the Steamers and Boats Department of the Sudan Government Railways. There is a large andextending market. The popula tion of the town in 1917 was about 16,000 . Omdurman, situated on the left bank of the main river , opposite the mouth of the Blue Nile , covers an 1 There is a village still bearing that name four miles to the north .