Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/120

Mr. Cave's report.report upon the condition of the finances. His report was published in April, 1876^[1]. On the 8th of the same month a Decree was issued, postponing for three months the payment of the coupon about to become due, and on the 2nd May a The Caisse, 2nd May, 1876.Decree established the ' Caisse de la dette publique, ' which still subsists^[2]. It was provided that the revenue devoted to the debt should be paid into the Caisse instead of the Exchequer ; that the Caisse might sue the government before the international tribunals ; and that the government should not diminish the revenue arising from the taxes hypothecated to the debt, nor contract fresh loans, without the sanction of the Caisse.

The Commissioners of the Caisse were to be Egyptian functionaries, but to be foreigners nominated by the governments of the countries which they were called upon to represent. Messrs. Kremer, Baravelli, and de Blignieres were appointed accordingly, on the nomination of Austria, Italy, and France respectively. It was not till i8th November that Major Baring was appointed for England, but not on the nomination of the English government^[3]. The functions of the Caisse were to commence from l0th June.

The Decree of the 2nd was followed by another of the 7th May^[4], 'unifying' the various loans, both funded and unfunded, contracted by the Government and the Daïra^[5], into a general debt, bearing interest at 7 per cent., to be managed by the Caisse, and assigning certain revenues as its security. The Decree also arrested the operation of the Moukabalah^[6].

1. Q. v. Parl. Papers, 1876, Egypt, No, 7.
2. Parl. Papers, 1876, Egypt, No. 8, pp. 54, 60 (Texts, No. XII)
3. See Art. 10 of the Goschen-Joubert Decree (Texts, No. XIV). Cf. infra, p. 109.
4. Parl. Papers, 1876, Egypt, No. 8, p. 63 (Texts, No. XITI). This Decree was followed by one of 11th May, constituting a Treasury department.
5. There are various 'Dairas,' or Administrations, of estates which belonged to the Khedivial family. The principal of these, the Daira Sanieh, was the personal estate of the Khedive.
6. A law passed in 1 871, which, in consideration of the payment of six years' land tax in advance, promised to landowners an exemption from half the tax after 1885, and an improved title. This law was revived by the Goschen-Joubert Decree, with modifications, but abolished by the Law of Liquidation.