This is an excellent book and it effectively describes the
social,
economic and indistrial transformation of Egypt
during the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha, often referred to
as the founder of modern Egypt. As governor since 1805, in
the aftermath of Napoleon's invasion of 1798 and subsequent
British aided Ottoman intervention in 1801, he undertook a
series of policies aimed at re-organizing the authority
through the centralization of
military and economic power
to make Egypt an imperial state within the Ottoman Empire.
Muhammad Ali instituted a policy of military conscription
that effectively replaced the Janissary system that had
existed prior to the nineteenth century. He shunned the
influence of Istanbul in favour of France, whose expertise
in military arts and technical advances were necessary to
accomplish the reforms required to modernize the army and
society. A principal characteristic of these reforms was a
process of
industrialization conceived to build local
capacity and in the manufacture of military equipment and a
parallel capacity in the production of consumer goods to do
away with dependency on imports. The state managed the
industrialization process and the economy in general
through a system of protective trade mechanisms and
monopolies intended to guarantee the state's exclusive
ownership of the means of production and distribution.
Significant advancements in infrastructure and an
administrative shift in the organization of land tenure
that renewed
agricultural growth accompanied the
industrialization drive. By the end of his reign Muhammad
Ali succeeded in establishing a hereditary governorship in
Egypt and de-facto autonomy from Istanbul, though his
ambitious industrial experiment did not survive him. The
high costs of manufacturing and idiosyncrasies inherent in
the monopolistic management system dealt a deathblow to
Egyptian industry by the middle of the nineteenth century.
The book analyzes these issues through a study of the
characteristics and effects of industrialization under
Muhammad Ali through an analysis of his administrative and
agricultural reforms, a survey of the military and consumer
manufacturing activities. It also discusses the problems
that eventually caused the failure of industrialization in
Egypt.
This account of Egyptian society in the reign of
Muhammad Ali traces the beginnings of the nation state in
Egypt. It considers Muhammad Ali as part of a social group
whose economic interests led them in the direction of trade
with Europe as a means of raising money for further
investments. They attempted to increase agricultural
exports and to use the profits to create industry; then,
following the logic of imperialists, their next step was to
seek to conquer the surrounding areas to find markets for
their industries and sources of raw materials. These
policies brought them into conflict with their suzerain,
the Ottoman sultan, and with England, since England needed
markets in the Middle East and sought to destroy the new
regime in Egypt as a means of exerting influence on the
region. In the process of carrying out these economic
changes, the country underwent a series of internal
developments that were to revolutionize the structure and
shape of Egyptian society. The rules of landownership were
altered and large estates were formed, Egyptian fallahin
were drafted into the army, and the administration was
Egyptianized, establishing the groundwork for a nation
state
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