12 YIELD of Cotton grown by the State Domains Administration from 1895 to 1909.

Year. Area Cultivated. Total Yield. Yield per Feddan.

Price per Kantar.

Value of Crop.

1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 3907 1908 1909 Feddans.

16,239 16,197 15,636 14,372 14,897 12,582 12.290 11.417 10,940 10,327 9,980 10,042 9,888 9,860 10,024 Kantai-s.

84,566 78,788 84,682 72,354 77,331 56,040 61,569 52,524 56,335 38,517 40,460 41,643 35,180 31,855 20,440 Kan tars.

5‘2l 4*86 5'42 5-03 5*19 4-5-4*60 5" 15 3-73 4*05 4*15 3-56 3-23 2*04 £E. 2*232 2*007 1*621 1*642 2*152 2*957 2*137 2*464 3*243 3*081 3*040 3*747 4*032 3*181 4*180 £S. 189.000 158.000 137.000 119.000 167.000 166.000 131.000 1-29,000 183.000 119.000 123.000 156.000 142.000 101.000 85,000 8. Agricultural Bank.

The Agricultural Bank ot Egypt was founded some eight years ago with the object of providing money on easy terms for the smaller cultivators, and in my last year’s report I gave an account of the conditions under which this work is being carried on. The main end which the promoters of the institution had in view was to maintain, and if possible to increase, the peasant proprietary class, and thus create a conservative element in the country which would make for stability. It -was hoped that the advances would enable the fellaheen to extricate themselves from the clutches of the village usurers, and would furnish them with capital for agricultural improvements and for extending their holdings. It was recognized that the project was essentially of an experimental character, and it was clear that success would depend upon the use made of the facilities afforded for borrowing money at a comparatively low rate.

Owing to a variety of circumstances, the Bank’s opeiutions during the first few years were conducted under exceptionally favourable conditions, and they Tvere not put to a severe test until ‘the end of 1907, when the great prosperity which the Egyptian peasantry had begun to look upon as permanent received a temporary set-back. Accurate information as to the purposes for which the loans arc used has never been Ibrthcoming, but there is little doubt that a large proportion of the money borrowed was devoted to the purchase of land. Of the remainder, some was used to pay ior agricultural improvements, while the balance must have been employed, in what proportions it is diflScult to say, in settling old debts and in expenditure of a more or less unproductive nature. The Bank’s operations would appear, therefore, to have resulted in an increase in the amount of land held by the fellaheen, but the impression that the loans have contributed to augment the number of small owmers is erroneous. The Bank does not lend to any one not already possessed of land, so that it cannot create new iUdividual holdings, and the recent apparent increase in the number of small holdings is due to the effect of the survey operations in dividing up properties between their real ownei*s, and also perhaps in some measure to the fact that holders far indivis, when in pecuniary straits, divide up their property wuth a view to raising money on it.

An important element in the case is whether the land, which is in Egypt usually sold on the instalment system, has been bought at prices wdiich have entailed too heavy a burden on the pui'chasers during the ensuing period of lean years. The greater part of the loans w*ere put out at a time when the value of land w'as continually rising owing to the great increase in the price of cotton. During the past two years the cultivators have been feeling the effects of the crisis of 1907, and have moreover suffered from low prices in 1908 and a bad cotton crop in 1909, the result being that borrowers are finding difficulty in meeting their instalments. The following table sho\vs the amount of the annuity to be collected on the loans of the Agricultural Bank in each year from 1904, the amount of arrears at the end of each year, the proportion of the latter to the former, and the percentage of total arrears recovered in the following House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.