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The Rural Marketing System of Egypt over the Last Three Hundred Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Barbara K. Larson
Barbara K. Larson
Affiliation:
University of New Hampshire
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Extract

Studies of local markets have come to attract much interest of late in the anthropological and geographical literature. However, while a fair amount of work has been done on rural and periodic markets in the Middle East and some on North Africa, no serious research has been done in Egypt. Yet Egyptian weekly markets have been around for a very long time, and they continue to play an important role in the local and national economy today, despite extensive state control. For this reason they deserve more serious study and attention than they have so far been given.

Type
The Multiple Dimensions of Markets
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , July 1985 , pp. 494 - 530
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1985

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References

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5 In the Delta, the rights were to specific plots of land, but in Upper Egypt, only to shares of land, which was redistributed each year because of the shifting boundaries caused by the annual Nile flood. By the eighteenth century, usufruct rights could be purchased as well; this, along with mortgages and pawns, was one of the ways in which wealthy peasants could acquire more land. Cuno, Kenneth, “The Origins of Private Ownership of Land in Egypt: A Reappraisal,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12:3 (1980), 245–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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10 There were also a few villages and towns that specialized in craft products which had a distribution wider than the immediate local area. This was true for reed mats from Sinûris, Ṭanṭa, and Minûf; pottery from Qina; distilled rose water from Fayyûm; and cloth from a variety of places (for example, blue-striped cotton shawls from Qina; wrapping cloth and white wool shawls from Fayyûm; silk luxury goods from Maḥallat al-Kubra; linen from Maḥallat al-Kubra, Ṭanṭa, and Shibîn; sails from Manṣûra and Rosetta). Other towns and some villages specialized in manufactures for local or regional use. al-Rahim, 'Abdal-Rahman, 'Abdal-Rahim, 'Abd, The Egyptian Countryside in the Eighteenth Century, in Arabic (Cairo: 'Ayn Shams University, 1974), 193–95;Google ScholarGirard, P. S., “Mémoire sur I'ag?culture, l'industrie, et le commerce de l'Egypte,” in France, Commission des sciences et arts d'Egypte, Description de l'Egypte, état moderne (Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1812), vol. II, p. I, 594–600.Google Scholar

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12 Cloth, Qina pots, and reed mats are mentioned by 'Abel al Rahîm, Egyptian Countryside, 193–95.Google Scholar

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15 Two French merchants sold cloth in Farshût in Upper Egypt in 1767 (Raymond, , Artisans et commerçants, 197);Google Scholar Greeks and French were involved in the rice trade, and they also financed crops (Gran, , Islamic Roots, 26–27).Google Scholar Foreigners from other parts of the Ottoman empire monopolized trade in a number of imported products: tarbushes were in the hands of Moroccans and Tunisians, soap and dried fruit were handled by Palestinians, imported cloth by Syrias and Christian Palestinians, tobacco by Syrians and Turks (Raymond, , Artisans et commerçants, 286).Google Scholar

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17 Products from farther afield were likely to be bought only by wealthier peasants, and were more likely to be procured from the larger town or religious markets rather than at the village markets.

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21 al-Rahîm, 'Abd, Egyptian Countryside, 203, suggests that village markets also had fees and tax farmers, but it is not clear whether he is careful to distinguish between villages and towns. His example and one of his sources refer only to town markets; there is no description of a village market with sufficient detail to ascertain whether it has this form of organization or not.Google Scholar

22 Girard, “Mémoire,” 622;Google ScholarRaymond, , Artisans et commerçants, 197, 249;Google ScholarLawson, Fred H., “Rural Revolt and Provincial Society in Egypt, 1820–1824,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 13:2 (1981), 139.Google Scholar

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24 The major regional division was between Upper and Lower Egypt, with Cairo at the border between them. Within each of these regions, there was further specialization of production as mentioned earlier; but the exchange of these specialized goods seems also to have taken place mainly in the major towns and entrepôts, because they usually consisted of luxury goods which ordinary people could not afford to buy.

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26 The most famous celebration was that of al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawî in Ṭanṭa, but there were many others of renown, such as those of Sidi Ibrâhîm al-Disûgî in Disûq, al-Sayyid Aḥmad al-Farghanî in Abû Tîj, 'Abd al-Rahîm a1-Qinâwî in Qina, and Sidi Ibrahim al-Shilgâmî al-Umrânî in the village of Shilgâm. al-Rahîm, 'Abd, Egyptian Countryside, 211.Google Scholar

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29 Ibid., 337.

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31 See Baer, Gabriel, Fellah and Townsman in Ottoman Egypt: A Study of Shirbini's Hazz alQuhuf, in Princeton Near East Papers, no. 16 (Princeton, 1973), 221–53.Google Scholar

32 Cuno, Kenneth, personal communication, June 1982.Google Scholar

33 al-Rahîm, 'Abd, Egyptian Countryside, 203–205,Google Scholar citing aI-Raḥman al-Jabarti, 'Abd, History of Egypt ('Ajâ'ib al-Athâr) (Cairo: Bulaq, 1880), 11, 190; III, 238–89.Google Scholar

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37 Owen, , Cotton, 29.Google Scholar

38 This was spurred on by the tremendous boom in European demand as a result of shortages caused by war.

39 Owen, , Cotton, 20–21.Google Scholar

40 Owen, , Cotton, 52, indicates that prices were generally fixed at less than half the free market price.Google Scholar

41 Rivlin, , Agricultural Policies, 112–13,Google Scholar claims this was the normal practice; Owen, , Cotton, 32, mentions it in connection with cotton in the 1820s.Google Scholar

42 Of course some categories of people were able to escape taxes. Shaykhs did not pay taxes on some of their land; bedouin received exemptions in return for settling, cultivating the land, and serving as auxiliaries in the army. Cuno, “Origins of Private Ownership,” 263. Fellahin did their best to hide whatever amount of their production they could, though with varying degrees of success.Google Scholar

43 Michaud, and Poujoulat, , Correspondence d'Orient, V, 78; VII, 36, 70.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., VII, 58.

45 See John's, J. A. St. account, Egypt and Nubia, 61.Google Scholar

46 By 1833, one ninth of the adult male population had been conscripted for the war in Syria. Owen, , Cotton, 35.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., 33–35, 58–59. By 1832, three quarters of assessed tax revenues were in arrears.

48 Ibid., 59.

49 Ibid., 67.

50 For the complexities of this process, see Baer, , Studies in Social History, ch. 4;Google ScholarRichards, Alan, Egypt's Agricultural Development, 1800–1980 (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1982), 27–29.Google Scholar

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52 The concentration of landholdings increased because peasants, unable to meet tax obligations, gave up their land. This was made easier by the introduction of mortgages on land in 1876. Prior to that, peasants might mortgage crops, but usually did not mortgage land. Owen, , Cotton, 241. The government also made land concessions to those who could pay taxes in advance.Google Scholar

53 Owen, , Cotton, 144–49.Google Scholar

54 Ibid., 71, 107.

55 Saleh, Mohammed, La petite propriété rurale en Egypte (Grenoble: Joseph Allier, 1922), 104–5;Google Scholar 'Abd el 'Aziz el Sherbini and Ahmad Fuad e1 Sherif, “Marketing Problems in an Underdeveloped Country-Egypt,” L'Egypte contemporaine, 47 (07 1956), 42–43.Google Scholar

56 Owen, , Cotton, 228.Google Scholar

57 Sherbini, El and Sherif, el, “Marketing Problems,” 43.Google ScholarIssawi, Charles, Egypt at Mid-Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), 114, estimates that local merchants handled 55 percent of the cotton crop before 1914; only 20 percent in the 1920s; and 40 percent after the 1931 slump.Google Scholar

58 Issawi, Charles, Egypt in Revolution: An Economic Analysis (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), 148.Google Scholar

59 In 1938 the company's markets were taken over by the government, which at first administered them directly, then decided to auction them off to the highest bidder. Personal communication from Ahmad Othmân al-Khûlî, who worked with the Egyptian Market Company and later for the government as a concessionaire of local markets from 1940 to 1956. This practice of auctioning off the rights to government-owned markets continues today.

60 Saffo, Samir, “Exploitation economique et agricole d'un domain rural égyptien,” L'Egypte contemporaine, 40 (04 05 1949), 353–55;Google Scholarel Sherbini, and el Sherif, , “Marketing Problems,” 42–43.Google Scholar

61 Owen, , Cotton, 212–17.Google Scholar

62 The net value of major crops increased 150 percent between 1887 and 1913, while costs held more or less steady. Owen, , Cotton, 264.Google Scholar

63 Ibid., 271.

64 Smith, C. A., “Exchange Systems,” 335.Google Scholar

65 Ibid., 336–37.

66 By 1864, cotton was planted on 40 percent of Egypt's cultivated land. By 1911–12, one half of Egypt's cotton crop was exported by four large foreign houses, and most of the rest was sent abroad by a further thirty-one firms. Owen, , Cotton, 103, 221.Google Scholar

67 Growth in port towns was centered in Alexandria once the Mahmûdia Canal completed the water link between Cairo and Alexandria in 1820, and in Suez and Port Saîd after the railway connected Cairo and the Suez Canal in 1867. Ṭanṭa, Manṣûra, Damanhûr, and Zagâzîg grew in importance as rural bulking centers with the spurt of agricultural growth in the Delta between 1846 and 1882. Middle Egyptian towns grew after completion of the Aswan Dam in 1902 and the subsequent shift to perennial irrigation. Asyût expanded during the 1842 to 1882 period as a major entrepôt for trade with the Sudan, but then declined with the suppression of the slave trade around the turn of the century. The population of these towns in 1882 was between 19,000 and 35,000 for Ṭanṭa, Mansûra, Damanhûr, Zagâzîg, Asyût, and Madinat Al-Fayyûm; between 10,000 and 17,000 for the port towns. Baer, , Studies in Social History, ch. 3.Google Scholar

68 Skinner, G. William, cited in Smith, C. A., “Regional Economic Systems,” 36, also makes the point that rive?ne systems may produce a dendritic distribution of market centers.Google Scholar

69 Boinet, A., Géographie économique et administrative de l'Egypte: Basse-Egypte (Cairo: Imprimerie Nationale, 1902).Google Scholar

70 Baer, , Studies in Social History, ch. 2.Google Scholar

71 Ibid., 149.

72 However, many peasants still preferred going through traditional middlemen to avoid the costs of transport involved. Saleh, , La petite propriété, 105.Google Scholar

73 Issawi, , Egypt in Revolution, 36.Google Scholar

74 Dethier, Jean-Jacques, Food Supply and Agricultural Policy in Egypt (Cairo: USAID, 1981), 9.Google Scholar

75 Moursi, Tarek, “Agricultural Pricing Policy in Egypt: An Empirical Study 1965–1977” (M.A. thesis, Cairo University, n.d.), 31.Google Scholar

76 Issawi, , Egypt in Revolution, 144–45.Google Scholar

77 State intervention in production includes regulating and specifying the crop rotation and broad outlines of crop allocation, allocation of irrigation water, and use of fertilizer and pest control.

78 Richards, Alan, “Egypt's Agriculture in Trouble,” MERIP Reports, 84 (01 1980), 8,Google Scholar said they were sold to the government at only 20–25 percent of their international market value. Abdel-Fadil, Mahmoud, Development, Income Distribution and Social Change in Rural Egypt, 1952–1970 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1975), claims it was at 70 percent to 80 percent of their value. Ahmed Hassen, “Impact of Some Agricultural Policies on Income Distribution in Egyptian Agriculture,” mimeograph, Princeton-Egypt Income Distribution Project (1979), says that the range was 44–76 percent for onions, 50–71 percent for rice, 85–98 percent for wheat, 72–82 percent for lentils, and 54–83 percent for fava beans over the 1971–77 period.Google Scholar

79 Dethier, , Food Supply, 21b.Google Scholar

80 In provincial capitals, like that of Zagâzîg, there are large government-supervised wholesale markets which concentrate in one place many wholesale merchants (forty-three in Zagâzîg), who each evening auction off the produce brought to them in the course of the day. They take a commission from both buyer and seller, and, like the private wholesale agencies, often sell on credit.

81 This material on rural markets is based on field work carried out by the author in the governorates of Shargiyya and Bani Suwayf in 1981–82. For a more detailed treatment of this material, see Larson, Barbara K., “The Structure and Function of Village Markets in Contemporary Egypt,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 19 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

82 For discussions of the functions or purposes of periodicity, see Bohannon, Paul and Dalton, George, “Introduction,” in Markets in Africa, Bohannon, P. and Dalton, G., eds. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1962);Google ScholarSkinner, “Marketing and Social Structure”;Google ScholarSmith, C. A., “Economics of Marketing Systems”;Google ScholarSmith, R. H. T., “Periodic Market-Place, Periodic Marketing, and Travelling Traders,” in Market-Place Trade, Smith, R. H. T., ed., 11–26.Google Scholar

83 Sûgs are actually larger than this description indicates. Peasant women selling small amounts of poultry, butter, and cheese are not included in my tally, however, because an accurate count is not possible and anything less would render comparisons between sûgs meaningless. Sellers of animals are not included in the general count for similar reasons, though I was able to obtain estimates of the number of livestock sold in some of the markets from the owner or concessionaire of the market who collects the fees. These estimates range from 30 head of small livestock in some of the smaller markets to 1,800 head in some of the larger markets. Generally livestock does not appear in markets having fewer than 150 vendors of other types.

84 Peasants account for about half of the fruit and vegetable sellers, three quarters of the livestock sellers, and virtually all of the women selling poultry, butter, and cheese. However, the rest of the fruit and vegetable sellers and most of the craft and manufactured goods vendors are full-time traders who buy their goods from town or from city wholesalers, and claim commerce as their major source of income.

85 Michalak, “World-View,” writing on Tunisia, notes the popularity and utility of weekly markets there. The number of markets has doubled over the last ten years.

86 In family operations, as opposed to fully commercialized ones, the cost of family labor is not fully taken account of in the push to secure subsistence, and the push to maximize family income is offset by the need to avoid too heavy a cost in drudgery. See Chayanov, A. V., The Theory of Peasant Economy, Thorner, D., Kerblay, B., and Smith, R. E. F., eds. (Homewood, Illinois: R. D. Irwin, 1966), 5–8;Google ScholarWolf, Eric, Peasants (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1966), 12–17.Google Scholar

87 Mathtech, Inc., FANS Group, Final Report: Poultry Improvement Project, Egypt (Atlanta: USAID, 1980), vol. 1, sec. 1, 3.Google Scholar

88 In 1975, the nonagricultural labor force accounted for 23 percent of those found in rural areas, of which 19.4 percent was engaged in trade. Hank, Iliya, Distribution of Land, Employment, and Income in Rural Egypt (Ithaca: Cornell University Rural Development Committee, 1979), 58–59.Google Scholar

89 The number of shops in the other provincial towns is as follows: in Manṣûra, 12,000; in Ṭanṭa and Maḥallat al-Kubra, about 10,000; and in Damanhûr and Zagäzîg, about 7,000. Arab Republic of Egypt, CAPMAS, The General Census of 1976; Census of Buildings and Residential Units by Town, in Arabic (Cairo: CAPMAS, 1978).Google Scholar

90 Cadaster of Egypt, 1917; Arab Republic of Egypt, CAPMAS, Research on Work by Sample in the Arab Republic of Egypt; Results of the May 1980 Round, in Arabic (Cairo: CAPMAS, 1981).Google Scholar

91 The result of my own research and that of Sulayman yielded a combined total of 127 market villages or towns so far identified (79 from my research; 105 from his). See Larson, , “Structure and Function of Village Markets”;Google Scholar and Sulayman, Sulayman Isma'îl, “Rural Markets in the Governorate of Shargiyya” (Ph.D. thesis, 'Ayn Shams University, Cairo, 1983).Google Scholar

92 See Marshall, , Location of Service Towns, ch. 2;Google Scholar and Smith, C. A., “Regional Economic Systems,” for a more thorough discussion of the differences between these two types of distribution model.Google Scholar