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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Private landownership in a hydraulic system: Egypt of the nineteenth century |
| Author: | Boutros-Ghali, Y. |
| Year: | 1988 |
| Periodical: | L'Égypte contemporaine |
| Volume: | 79 |
| Issue: | 413-414 |
| Pages: | 167-194 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Egypt |
| Subjects: | real property land reform history 1800-1899 |
| Abstract: | This article examines the issue of private landownership in Egypt in relation to the political economy of oriental despotism during the period 1800-1880. It starts from the proposition that the creation of private landownership in Egypt's hydraulic society, characterized by a highly centralized system of government, was a means to perpetuate or increase the transfer of surplus to the central authority. It arose when the existing pattern of bureaucratic control became ineffective in channelling the surplus needed for the proper functioning of the State apparatus and the State economy. The initial impetus to this process was the increase in State expenditures during the reign of Muhammad 'Ali. The article reviews landholding in Egypt in the late 18th century, landholding reforms under Muhammad 'Ali (1805-1849), the collapse of Muhammad 'Ali's reign and the rise of private property in the 1840s, developments during the reign of Abbas (1849-1854) and Said (1854-1863), and the law of Moukabalah which, in 1871, granted absolute rights of property in land for which the owner paid six years' taxes (moukabalah) in advance. This law constituted the final step in the development of private landownership in Egypt. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |