There are only three great inland cities, each of which in turn
serves as metropolis: Fez, Mequinez and Marrākesh. The towns
next in importance are the seaports of Tangier, Casablanca (Dar el
Baida), Mogador, Mazagan, Saffi, Salli-Rabat, Laraish and Tetuan.
All these places are separately noticed. The ports of Agadir Ighir,
Azammūr and Azīla being closed to trade, are in a decayed
condition. On the Mediterranean shore, along the coast of Er-Rit,
the Spaniards have for centuries possessed Ceuta, Peñon de Velez,
Alhucemas and Melilla; in 1848 they appropriated the Chaffarinas
Islands. Inland, besides the three cities named, are the sacred towns
of Mulai Idris, Zarhōn, Sheshāwan and Wazzān (the last-named of
which alone is open to Europeans), and the minor towns of Al
Ḳaṣar, Sifrū, Tāza, Dibdū and Ujda in northern Morocco (once the
kingdom of Fez); Damnāt, El Klā, Sidi Rahal, Zettāt and Amzmiz
in central Morocco (once the kingdom of Marrākesh); Tarudant,
Ilīgh, Tiznīt and Glīmīn in southern Morocco (once the kingdom
of Sūs.)
The town of Mulai Idrīs Zarhōn lies to the north of Mequinez. James Jackson, who in 1801 managed to pay a hurried visit, is the only European known to have entered its gates. It is a place of apparently 1500 to 2000 inhabitants, compact, and with several large buildings, the principal of which is the shrine of Mulai Idrīs, the founder of the Moorish Empire, round which the place has grown. Wazzan is the seat of a sharif or noble descended from Mulai Idrīs, whose family has been greatly reverenced for over two hundred years. It was built by Mulai Abd Allāh es-Sharif (d. 1675), and is open to European visitors, which Sheshāwan (or Shefshāwan), another sacred city of sharifs, founded in 1471, a day’s ride into the mountains south of Tetuan, is not. Sifrū is picturesquely situated amidst gardens, a short day’s ride from Fez. Tāza is a considerable trading centre on the route between Fez and the Algerian frontier. The population, in Leo’s time 20,000, is now 5000, of whom 800 are Jews. Dibdū, to the east of Tāza, is a small but important Jewish centre. About 120 m. east of Tāza, and only 10 from the frontier, is Ujda (Oudjda of the French), in the midst of an orange grove. Marrākesh is the only really large city of central Morocco. Damnāt is a walled town of magnificent situation in the Atlas, east of Marrākesh, between which and the Um er-Rabī‛a are the less important Sidi Rāhal and El Klā. Amzmiz lies in the Atlas, south-west of Marrākesh. Tārudant, the capital of Sūs. is situated between the Atlas and the river Sūs; it is a place of from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, already a flourishing town in the 12th century, rebuilt by the Sa‛adi Dynasty early in the 16th, and refortified by El Hasan IV. in 1882. Tiznit, which lies to the south, until then but a village, was in 1882 converted into a town by El Hasan IV., and walled. Iligh (1300 ft.) above a stream which joins the Massa, is the chief town of Tazirwalt, the state of Sidi Hishām, an independent principality founded by Sidi Ahmed ū Mūsa; and Glīmīn or Agelmin, in like manner is the chief town of the Wād Nun district. Tagaōst, about 40 m. inland from Ifni, was formerly a large city, and in the 16th century the seat of a Spanish factory trading in archil.
Communications.—Regular and fairly frequent steamship services link Morocco with the principal ports of the world, though in some instances transshipment at Gibraltar is necessary. The tourist traffic has grown greatly since the last quarter of the 19th century. Great Britain, Spain, France and Germany have postal agencies, running competing courier mails along the coast and to the capitals, while Great Britain, France and Spain have laid telegraphic cables from Gibraltar, Oran and Tarifa respectively to Tangier; but the extension of wires inland, save for telephones and electric light, was prohibited up to 1909. A railway about 24 m. long, connecting Casablanca and Ber Reshid, was opened in September 1908. This was the first line built in Morocco. There is also a railway from Melilla to some neighbouring mines. In general travelling in the interior is what it was a thousand years ago. There being practically no made roads and few bridges, vehicular traffic is out of the question, and even the transport of goods and persons on the backs of animals lacks the facilities provided in some Eastern lands—as Persia, for instance—in regular posting stations and caravanserais, here known as fandaks. Travellers have therefore to carry tents and all conveniences desired. Throughout the central Moroccan plains it is generally perfectly safe to travel unguarded, but in mountainous districts it is customary to be accompanied by a mounted policeman (makhazni) whose duty is as much to prevent travellers attempting exploration as to afford them protection.
Resources of the Country.—The natural products of the country remain almost entirely undeveloped. In applications for concessions for mining and other exploitation, the government has seen the possibility of further complications with Europe: so that if, by wholesale bribery, any grant was obtained a nullifying clause was inserted, or the first occasion seized to raise anew insuperable obstacles. After the conference at Algeciras in 1906, however, the government was obliged to grant various concessions. The breeding of horses or cattle and the rearing of birds for European markets increase in spite of restriction and heavy dues. One of the most promising of recent developments has been the growing supply of chickens, eggs, and fruit to Europe—even to England. The fisheries also are capable of great expansion, and are at present almost entirely in the hands of Portuguese and Spaniards.
Agriculture.—It is still true, as in the time of Addison, that the Moors “seldom reap more than will bring the year about,” and the failure of a single harvest causes inevitable dearth. Only a small part of the available land is cultivated; and the cultivated portion possessed by each tribe is divided into three parts, one only of which is sown each year. With a plough of the most primitive description the Moorish peasant scarcely scratches the surface of the soil; his harrow is a few branches of trees weighted with heavy stones. The corn is cut close to the ear with short serrated sickles, and the straw is left standing. Underground granaries or matmoras are excavated beneath the tufaceous crust which covers much of the lowlands, sometimes capable of holding 2000 quarters; they preserve their contents in good condition for many years.
Mineral Wealth.—That mineral deposits of great value exist in Morocco there is little doubt. At Jebel Hadid or the Iron Mountain, in Abda, disused mines may still be visited, and in Sūs iron has long been worked. In the Beni Madan hills near Tetuan are mines, closed, it is said, by the sultan ‛Abd er-Raḥmān; but whether they furnished copper or lead authorities differ. On the road to Kenatsa, Rohlfs saw lead and antimony worked. Antimony especially seems to be abundant to the south of the Atlas; Rohlfs found it in a very pure state near Tesna, and Dr Allen saw splendid veins of it north of the Draʽa. That gold existed in Sūs was long suspected; Gatell proved it. Rock-salt occurs in the mountains north of Fez, in the valley of the W. Martil, and probably in Jebel Zarhōn. In several places, as in the route from Saffi to Morocco, are brine lakes, from which the salt is collected and exported as far as Central Africa.
Manufactures.—The manufactures are few, and the most famous—leather—is now either exported undressed to Marseilles or Philadelphia, or is counterfeited by machinery in London or Paris. With the exception of slippers and shawls supplied to Moors established in the Levant, manufactured exports consist principally of carpets, rugs, trays, arms and “curios” for decorative purposes. For home use the Moors do much spinning, weaving, and dyeing, chiefly of wool; but although it is possible to dress superbly in native-made articles, every year sees an increasing importation of Manchester and Yorkshire goods, rivalled by the cheaper products of Barcelona and Austria—in the last case with great success.
Commerce.—The external trade of Morocco is mainly with Great Britain, France, Germany and Spain. The proportion of trade taken by Britain, formerly fully 50% of the whole, had decreased in 1905 to 32%, in which year France’s share was 39%, that of Germany nearly 12% and that of Spain 5%. Statistics as to its value are difficult to obtain, and not altogether trustworthy; the British consul at Tangier, writing in 1906, declared: “No information is to be obtained from the Moorish custom-houses and no statistics whatever are published by the Moorish government.” From such sources as were available the exports in 1873 (a year of phenomenally good crops) were valued at about £1,500,000 and the imports at £934,000 Twenty years later (1903) the exports were valued at £1,601,000 and the imports at £2,656,000. A British consular return gave the value of the trade in 1906 as: Exports £1,756,109, imports £2,976,900. According to French official returns the value of trade fell in 1907 to £3,200,000, but had risen in 1908 to £4,400,000. This includes the trade through the eight open Moroccan ports (Tangier, Tetuan, Laraish, Rabat, Casablanca, Mazagan, Saffi and Mogador), the trade through Melilla, and that by the land frontier with Algeria. The trade with Algeria is valued at from £300,000 to £500,000 a year. Statistics as to the considerable trade done by caravans crossing the Sahara are entirely lacking.
The chief articles of exports are skins and hides, sheep, oxen and goats, wool, barley, eggs, beeswax, almonds and slippers. Maize, peas and chick-peas are also considerable exports in years of good crops. Cotton goods form the chief articles of import (exceeding £800,000 in value in 1906), sugar, tea, flour and semolina coming next. Other imports include cloth, candles, iron and hardware, wines and spirits. Wheat and oxen are imported overland from Algeria.
Finance.—The only part of the revenue which can be estimated with any degree of accuracy are the customs, which during the early years of the 20th century yielded about £500,000 per annum. Under the provisions of the act of Algeciras the Morocco State Bank was established in 1907. It is a limited liability company and subject to the law of France. The capital of the bank is £800,000 and the head office is at Tangier. The directors represent the various groups subscribing the capital, French financiers contributing a share twice as large as that of any other group in return for the relinquishment of the right of France to take up all new loans at the rate of the lowest tender. The bank holds a concession from the state for forty years, and acts as its treasurer and financial agent. It alone has the power of issuing notes. A Moorish high commissioner and four censors (representing the Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Bank of Spain and the German Imperial Bank) watch over the working of the bank. In all legal disputes in which the bank is concerned the Federal Court at Lausanne is the final authority. There is a Moorish coinage based on that of the Latin Union; Spanish money is also legal tender.
Moorish weights and measures vary from town to town, but in the foreign trade the decimal system has almost entirely superseded the native chaos. Credit is allowed by European houses at their peril, and in some lines profits are cut ruinously fine or done away
