The Times of Wednesday publishes the chief details of the
Egyptian Budget. Owing to the bad Nile and the conse- quent loss of cultivable area, and so of taxes, the receipts have fallen off by £250,000. The farmers, it is calculated, have lost 2550,000. But then they have made an extra 23,500,000 owing to the improved cotton crop. On the whole, it seems probable that the total revenue for 1899 will work out at £11,562,000, as against £11,632,000 in the pre- vious year. The Soudan Budget, which is quite separate, shows a deficit of £427,000. The Unpledged Reserve Fund is put at £1,700,000, but it is proposed to borrow most of this for public works. The fund in the hands of the Caisse is about E4,136,000. These figures all show that the financial condition of Egypt is very sound. We are delighted to see that Mr. Gorst ends his financial statement with the wise and beneficial declaration that the Egyptian Govern- ment do not intend to allow the tariff, which is essentially a revenue tariff, to be used to foster unsound industries. For example, if cotton mills are set up the cloth will pay an excise equal to the duty. If not, and if this were done on a large scale, the Egyptian Treasury might be bled slowly to death.
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