Chapter XV: Commerce

The monopoly enjoyed by the Egyptian government in this province totally impedes trade in general. The chief articles of commerce are not only all bought by the authorities, who are, moreover, protected by a law prohibiting any private person from bringing them into the market; but the immense duties levied on the goods render it impossible to transport them to Egypt; this rule especially applies to ivory. Every one is, therefore, forced to sell to the government,—the most arbitrary species of monopoly, or rather worse, inasmuch as the individual suffers an outlay in capital, freight, and duty. The country might produce indigo, opium, sugar, and many other articles, which would yield an immense profit, both to private persons and to the administration, for the soil requires but little cultivation, and brings forth every plant in great luxuriance; but the onus placed upon the province by the despotic government discourages the individual from attempting more than trusting entirely to nature. The whole population live in fear, and are not one day sure of their property; thus every one looks only to the moment, and troubles himself very little about his successor. All the produce met with in commerce is in its natural state, and few manufactured goods are ever seen beyond some solitary cottons, and objects in leather.

The articles of export are: gum, hides, senna-leaves, ivory, rhinoceros’-horns, cattle, tamarinds, ostrich-feathers, ostrich-eggs, gold in rings and in grain, water-bags, salt, tobacco, sim-sim, cisme, and slaves. The first three articles named are the most lucrative in a commercial point of view, and monopolized, of course, by the government. The gum Arabic is collected in the forests a few months after the expiration of the rainy season, and we may say by force; for the government pays the cantaro of forty-four oock’ckahs, equivalent to one hundred and ten pounds, with fifteen piasters (four shillings and fourpence) only. They might greatly increase their profits if they were to remunerate the labour better, and to pay more attention to this branch of trade, although it must be allowed to a certain extent to rest under the influence of the weather, for if much rain fall, the trees are the more prolific; but the collection itself is performed with the utmost carelessness, as the people employed are driven to this work by force, and receive but small wages. Add to this, that whole forests are being annually hewn down, and converted into arable land, whilst no one dreams of replanting trees, a provision considered a work of supererogation, and left entirely to nature.

If the export of gum and ivory to Europe should ever become a free-trade, merely subjected to duty, these two articles will yield a very considerable profit to those who may have the good fortune to benefit first by this alteration, and who take the trouble to repair to the spot. The gathering takes place, as I have before-mentioned, at the close of the rainy season, in the months of November, December, and January; the gum obtained is of the finest quality, and is erroneously named gum Arabic. Kordofan yields, in average years, from three thousand five hundred to four thousand loads of this product, or from ten to fourteen thousand hundred-weight, at forty-four oock’ckahs. I have been assured by many persons that an addition of six thousand hundred-weight might be made to this quantity, if the labour of the persons employed in the collection were but better remunerated. Before the introduction of the monopoly, it was sold in the following manner, a plan which will be again pursued as soon as the present statutes are repealed. A number of men, women, and children, gather the raw gum in the forest into baskets, capable of containing twelve rottoli (the rottolo about three quarters of a pound). Forty of these baskets constitute a camel-load, which weighs four hundred and eighty rottoli, and reckoning the tare of the cases at five hundred rottoli; the cost of this quantity would vary from five and a half to six Spanish dollars. These five hundred rottoli[70] cannot be transported by camel across the desert to Debba, on the Nile, because the load would be too heavy; for three to four contari, at one hundred rottoli, form the average load of each camel. Another expedient, which might be turned to very good account, would be to pack the gum in ox-hides instead of cases; for the government buys dry hides at three piasters (ten pence halfpenny), and at Alexandria they are sold at thirty piasters (six shillings and sixpence). It would be imperatively necessary to employ the natives in the purchase of gum, sending them out in all directions into the various villages; but I would advise every one to be on his guard against the Dongolavi, and it should be a rule in general not to trust any native with much money, for it would stand a very good chance of being totally lost. Those who are furnished with articles in consumption in the country may effect one-third of their outlay in goods, and will thus realize an average profit of fifty per cent.

The place best adapted for the purchase of gum would be Bara, and I adjoin a list of the expenses of freightage and duties thence to Cairo, as defrayed before the introduction of the monopoly:—

£. _s._ _d._
To outlay for four hundred and eighty rottoli
(about three and a half hundred-weight), at
forty-four oock’ckahs 1 0 0

Freight to Dongola 1 0 0

„ from Dongola to Wady Chalfa 0 14 0

„ per boat to Cairo 0 4 8

Duty in Kordofan 0 8 9

„ Darawi 0 11 0

„ Cairo 0 5 0
----------------
4 3 5

As the export duty is, according to the existing laws, only twelve shillings, _ad valorem_, the customs would amount only to sixteen shillings per hundred-weight to Alexandria.

In the countries bordering on Kordofan, as Nuba, Takele, Kodero, etc., the gum rots every year, because Mehemed Ali makes no use of it, but is too avaricious to allow any other person to derive benefit from it. The purchase might in those places be effected by barter.

IVORY.—Many of the merchants at Trieste, Marseilles, and Livorno, are even at the present day of the opinion that the ivory imported, _viâ_ the Cape of Good Hope, is found in the East Indies, and have, therefore, given it the name of Asiatic ivory; that, on the other hand, brought by way of Tripoli and Alexandria, they have termed African ivory; whereas I can assure them, that more than one-third, if not the half of the former, is, properly speaking, African. During nineteen months of my travels in the interior of Africa, I endeavoured to collect accurate information concerning this article of commerce, and I think that my experience will prove of sufficient interest to entitle me to give it at length. Mehemed Ali monopolizes the trade in ivory, and thinks that he receives all the ivory imported into his states from the centre of Africa; but he is very much mistaken in this respect, for only that brought by the caravans from Darfour, which usually reach Siut, in Upper Egypt, in the months of February and March, is sold to the Viceroy, and this merely from necessity, in order to enable the vendor to purchase other articles with the net proceeds. In Kordofan, the very centre of the ivory trade, he has thrown the trade open, but at the same time very cunningly calculated that it must eventually come into his hands, for, after the djelabi (merchants) have bought the ivory in Kordofan, and defrayed all the expenses of its transport to Cairo, he is the first to make them an offer for their stock, and, indeed, at so low a price that they can hardly gain a small interest on the capital laid out; hence very little ivory is brought to him now-a-days through that source. Darfour, which receives ivory from its tributary provinces, Runga, Kulla, Shala, Binga, Gimir, Sachana, Yambusa, Dama, etc., as contribution, sells it in the country to the merchants of Kobbe and El-Fasher. That which is collected at Pergu, Bachermi, Kugo, and Niro, is annually forwarded to Tripoli. The market price at Kobbe and El-Fasher, where large stores are always kept, is 3_l._ 2_s._ 6_d._ the cantaro of 12 rottoli (= 88 lbs). The purchase is likewise effected by barter against cottons from Dongola, or articles of trade from Germany, viz., double-edged swords, red cloth, amber, glass-beads, spikenard, wire, etc. From Darfour the ivory is brought to Lobeid, the capital of Kordofan, and to Bara, a commercial town in the same province, but the greater quantity passes through the country to the shores of the Red Sea. In Kordofan, the cantaro costs already 10_l._ 18_s._, including the duty. A great deal is brought from Shabun and the Shilluk country to Kordofan, where the djelabi of Lobeid and Bara become the possessors of it by barter; the Bakkara (a nomadic tribe) also trade in ivory, and barter it away to the djelabi above mentioned; to the Shilluks they give, at the most, cottons from Dongola, glass beads, salt, and tobacco, in exchange for it. All the ivory which passes through Kordofan, whether directly or indirectly obtained, is forwarded to Suakim, a sea-port on the Red Sea, under the 19° of northern latitude, where it is received by Englishmen who have been quietly awaiting its arrival, and have cast their net over sixteen hundred or two thousand miles of the interior of Africa. The Englishman pays well and promptly, hence he commands the market without any trouble; whilst for Mehemed Ali remains only that which, for want of time, or owing to some other circumstance, was not forwarded to Suakim. The English have done all in their power, for a long time, to keep secret the sources, whence they derive so large a quantity of this commodity; thus they remained perfectly quiet at Suakim, where this article of commerce was brought to them, avoiding the necessity of exposing themselves to the unhealthy climate of the interior of Africa, or rather of Kordofan. They have appointed agents at Suakim, Indians by birth, who manage the business for two, or at the most three, English houses established in India. In the year 1840, an Englishman was stationed there transacting business, and he was by no means pleased at finding the secret, which had stood the test of so many years, at last discovered. The cantaro costs from 10_l._ to 12_l._, and scarcely a fourth part of it pays duty at the customhouse in Suakim. Small coasting vessels act as lighters to convey the cargo to the larger Arabian and Indian ships lying off in readiness to receive it, which then sail for India directly.

At a distance of half a league from the shore of Abyssinia, and two leagues from Arkiko, is an island in the possession of the Viceroy of Egypt, named Massauwa, which forms, as it were, the key of Abyssinia; for all the ivory brought from Abyssinia, the Galla country, and the south-west and southern parts of Africa, must pass through this island. The cargoes from Shoa (in southern Abyssinia) and the neighbouring states, are discharged at Berbera and Zeila, a town on the African coast. From these few remarks, it may be easily deduced that the ivory passing from Africa to India, and by the Cape, is not all Asiatic, although a large share of it is certainly obtained in India. In conclusion, I must observe that, when Mehemed Ali throws the trade open, the first buyers in Kordofan will realize a very handsome profit; but they should rather pay the cantaro of one hundred and fourteen rottoli, with seven hundred and fifty piasters at Lobeid, than venture into the country of the Shilluks, or to Shabun, Runga, or Darfour, where they might certainly purchase it at half the price, but would incur a risk which would decidedly overbalance the advantage. It would be no less hazardous to send a native of Kordofan into these countries to effect the purchase, for they are such infamous liars, more especially the Dongolavi, that they will rather allow themselves to be murdered than speak one word of truth: the goods, moreover, or the money with which they might be intrusted, would be certainly lost, as they will leave their wives and children for so favourable an opportunity of cheating.

The djelabi, would, in like manner, raise the price of the ivory considerably, as soon as they had an idea that the demand for this commodity increased; hence it would probably be the most judicious plan to come to an understanding with a Turkish officer quartered in Kordofan, and to effect the acquisition in his name; the officers would willingly lend themselves to this undertaking, without any pretensions to a share in the profits, if they were only treated to a few bottles of wine or good brandy; many honourable men are, moreover, to be met with among the Turks, to whom the business might fearlessly be intrusted. There would be no difficulty in entering into Darfour or in reaching Kobbe, which is not the capital, but merely the chief commercial town in the kingdom; nor would it be impracticable to obtain ivory by purchase or barter there, or, indeed, at El-Fasher, the capital, where large stores are kept; but no one could answer for his return as long as Sultan Mohammed Fadels is on the throne. Should the government ever devolve upon his brother, Abumedina, Europeans would then have free ingress and egress to the country, for he is favourably disposed towards the Franks, and would willingly serve them. For this assertion I can vouch, as I received the most unequivocal proofs of the kindness of his disposition, at a time when my life was at stake. The further expenses contingent upon this undertaking would be as follows:—

Piasters. Day’s journey.
To freight of one camel-load
of three to three and a half
cantari of one hundred rottoli,
from Lobeid to Debba on the Nile 60 16

To boat-hire thence to New
Dongola for one boat 30-60 4-6

To freight from New Dongola,
across the desert to Wady Chalfa 30-50 14-16

To freight from Wady Chalfa to the
Isle of Phylae on the first cataract 60-150 8-10

To freight to Assuan (the ancient
Syene), a distance of one and a half
hour’s march., per camel 3-4

To freight per boat from Assuan
to Cairo 400-1000 20-30

To freight, per boat, from Cairo
to Atfe 150-400 4-8

To freight, per boat, from Atfe
on the canal of Mahmudie 30-80 1

It must be mentioned in giving this estimate, that the boat-hire would vary according to the size of the vessel employed, nor can the time of the journey by water be accurately calculated, as it depends in a great measure on the wind and the height of the water of the Nile. As a general rule three months and a half may be reckoned as the time required to reach Alexandria from Lobeid in travelling with goods.

Tamarinds are an article to which the government attaches no value, it consequently permits the export. In the years 1837, 1838, and 1839, when, from some cause unknown to me, the inflorescence dropped off and no pods were formed, the rottolo cost on the spot three-quarters of a penny; and this was at a time when the natives were compelled to import tamarinds from Darfour, as the soil did not produce the necessary quantity for the consumption of the country. In other years, taking an average harvest, a camel load of three cantari will sell at one pound, The duty on this article is trifling. I found the flowers taken in the form of tea, a very excellent remedy, and am only astonished that this wholesome beverage is not in more general use in Europe. Ostrich feathers may be reckoned among the most profitable articles of commerce, when in demand in Europe. The inhabitants of Caccie, a town on the borders of Darfour, and of Haraza, and many other villages, occupy themselves with the capture of these birds. An ostrich’s skin yields usually about three rottoli of black feathers, and half a rottolo of white plumes. Several sorts are parted off for sale, _e. g._: two-thirds blacks, one-third whites, at 10_s_ 6_d_ to 13_s_ 6_d_ the rottolo; greys at 5_s_ 3_d_; blacks at 2½ to 3 piasters; white plumes, not of the best quality, from 2_l_ 2_s_ to 2_l_ 12_s_. The duty on the feathers is one pound on the value in Kordofan, Darauve, and Cairo. They are made up into small packages enclosed in the skin of the bird; but great attention is required in the packing, for it is almost incredible how the moth attacks these goods, it is, therefore, indispensably necessary to air the feathers occasionally, and to pepper them in the packing.

The government purchases all the oxhides and consigns them to Egypt; it pays three piasters for each hide. There are no calf-skins in commerce, as it is contrary to the koran to slaughter calves. Sheep and goat skins for water-bags (Ckirbeh) constitute an article of export trade; these water-bags are also manufactured from ox leather, two of them generally form a camel load. Salt and tobacco are articles of export to the Shilluks and Yaenky, and are considered favourable objects for barter.

Sim-sim, whence an oil is expressed, is exported to Sennaar; Cisme,[71] which grows in Kordofan, although that of a superior quality comes from Takele, is exported to Egypt and the Levant. The price is very low; about twenty paras (two-pence) the rottolo, the same quantity is, however, paid in Cairo with four piasters (one shilling). It is used as a remedy in diseases of the eye, but great caution is necessary in purchasing this article; and it should indeed be always subjected to close examination, for there are several varieties in commerce, the fine grained specimens being the best, and the coarse grained the inferior varieties.

Gold is a very important article of export, but not very profitable at present, since the price has risen considerably. I am told that the oock’ckah was sold at two hundred piasters before the Turks entered the country; whereas the same quantity now costs three hundred and seventy or four hundred piasters; at this price, from ten to fifteen per cent. may be realized; the oock’ckah of Kordofan is rather heavier than that of Sennaar. Gold is met with in commerce, in rings varying in size, and also in grains; the latter variety is enclosed in the quills of large birds of prey, and is generally preferred to that in rings, which the natives have already began to adulterate. The greatest quantity of this metal is brought from the neighbourhood of Shabun, and from other southern provinces.

Horned cattle forms one of the chief exports, and is transported by the government to Egypt in large droves, of which more than the half perish on the road from want of proper care. Private individuals cannot engage in this speculation, for it would be injudicious to transport large herds, like those of the government, because attended with enormous expense, as it would require magazines to be erected at each day’s march between Debba and Cairo. Smaller droves are forwarded to Sennaar and Dongola by private parties. The government have even given up their large transports to Cairo. Camels are also exported to Cairo, because the price of these animals is very low in Kordofan.

The chief trade, before all the articles enumerated, is, unfortunately, in slaves. The government and the Djelabi emulate each other in doing all in their power to gain possession of these unhappy beings by every possible method. The former, who are wholesale dealers, resort to the most cruel practices to seize upon slaves in large bodies;[72] whilst the Djelabi imitate them on a smaller scale, and consider every species of cunning and deception fair, where the object is to gain possession of these poor wretches. The slaves of the Djelabi, however, are always treated with more forbearance than those of the government, who are not very particular about losing several hundred of their unfortunate victims by positive ill-treatment, or no less blameable neglect; whereas the Djelabi are compelled to use them more leniently, as the death of each slave entails the loss of a small capital. Lobeid is the centre of the slave trade, and market is, consequently, held there daily. To this place slaves are brought, not only from the neighbouring countries, but even from Kulla, Banda, Wuanga, Bachermi, Bergu, Pegu, and more distant states, but not in such large numbers as from the borders. It is absolutely revolting to hear how these poor creatures have oftentimes fallen into captivity, and it would be, indeed, incredible were not the opportunity for conviction of the truth of so frequent occurrence. The Djelabi proceed into the neighbouring countries with goods, which they barter away for slaves who have become prisoners of war or captives by stealth. They stand in connexion with a species of kidnappers, who think very little of stealing the children of their own countrymen for a trifle, and bringing them to a preconcerted spot for barter. The greater part of those bought up by the Djelabi are thus collected by the marauding Bakkara. The price of these unhappy beings varies according to their age, health, and beauty, as also according to the country they may call their fatherland. Children born in Kordofan of captive parents are generally of the highest price, because already accustomed to some species of work and more especially because acquainted with the Arabic language, for the owner of a married slave, or of a girl who brings a child into the world, is at the same time proprietor of the latter, and is permitted to sell it; masters even who have children by their female slaves may dispose of their offspring, and examples of this unnatural proceeding are by no means uncommon. In short whatever is considered most cruel and revolting by all civilized nations, is treated with the utmost levity in this country, so that it is, indeed, impossible to find words to give full vent to your feelings of indignation and horror.

The human being, deprived of his liberty, is here regarded as a commodity, or ready money, passes from hand to hand as in circulation or in commerce, and must think himself fortunate if he ultimately chance to become the denizen of a house where he may find rest for the sole of his foot, or may reckon on the treatment due to him as a portion of humanity. No single house is to be found among the more opulent part of the community which is not provided at least with one slave, either male or female, for the performance of the menial offices, for it is, as it were, _comme il faut_ to fill the house with captives, and to keep a separate slave appropriated to each separate office. The greater number, however, is hence exported, in larger or smaller convoys, to Egypt and the Levant.

_Senna-leaves_ are found in many parts of Kordofan in abundance, but the government makes no use of them, and others are prevented from turning them to advantage by the existing monopoly. They are equal in quality to those of Dongola, which the administration thence imports and sells under the denomination of Alexandrian or Egyptian Senna. Not the fiftieth part of these leaves, however, are natives of Egypt, for they are first met with at Assuan, and are erroneously called Egyptian leaves; their true native country is the province of Dongola. The government draws its entire supply from that province. The inhabitants of the deserts in those parts collect them, and receive from two hundred to four hundred piasters, according to the state of the market, for the camel-load of three cantari, at forty-four oock’ckahs, delivered in New Dongola. As the government would have to pay an addition of sixty to eighty piasters on the freight of each camel-load they might draw from Kordofan, they naturally do not obtain any leaves from that province, and they are left to rot unused.

These are then the chief articles produced in the country, or received transito from the bordering states.

The importation of articles for home consumption, or for trade with other countries, is effected by caravans, the majority of which arrive from Cairo, a far less number comes from Sennaar, and yet less from Suakim; they return laden with a few inconsiderable objects from Araby and India to Lobeid and Bara. Commerce is carried on in a very dilatory manner, and the return of profits is attended with a considerable loss of time. In the month of Ramadan, the great Turkish fast, the most home-business is transacted. During the rainy season all communication with other countries is cut off, and it is a rare occurrence if a small caravan ever arrive during that period, for every merchant is justly under the apprehension of a loss, by the damage his goods might sustain from the heavy showers; and the streams are, moreover, so overflowing that frequently many days transpire before a caravan can cross them. The immense journey of three or four months duration, and the freightage by camel and boat, render the price of all imported articles very high in Kordofan. This outlay would, however, be but of slight importance in a commercial point of view, were it not for the exorbitant duty, which so materially augments the price of the goods; such absurdity and despotism could, in fact, only exist under the government of Mehemed Ali; even if his realms were to extend to the assumed range of mountains of the moon, the merchandize would have to pay customs in each province it might pass through before reaching the place of its destination. All goods on their arrival at Alexandria are subjected to a moderate import duty, which, however, only franks them to Cairo. The same goods shipped in Old Cairo to be conveyed up the Nile must again pay as follows: in Old Cairo on an average twelve shillings, in Dongola thirty piasters per camel-load, in Lobeid three hundred piasters for a load of cottons, whether fine or of inferior quality, without distinction. A camel-load of rice pays one hundred and fifty piasters, wine one hundred piasters, brandy, rosoglio, and rum fifty shillings ad valorem. The states of Austria furnish the greater quantity of articles for Kordofan, the majority of which are again exported into the negro states. England yields only white calicos; common Bohemian linen was formerly imported, but the more reasonable prices of cottons have quite ousted it from the market. The following are the articles of import trade to Kordofan: cloves, pepper, sugar, coffee, sulphur, rice, soap, chintz and cotton prints, red and blue sackcloth, linen from Cairo (named here _shouter melanie_), ready-made clothes for Turks, red shoes, wine, brandy, rosoglio, vinegar, oil, green olives, cheese, amber from Prussia (Nos. 3 to 6), opaque coral, and a few other inconsiderable objects. The imports from the Austrian dominions are the following: spikenard,[73] shot, dogas,[74] razors,[75] double-edged swords,[76] camel-bells, antimony,[77] arsenic,[78] iron and brass wire,[79] lucifers, Bohemian products, ordinary cloths,[80] looking-glasses in paper cases, finger-rings set with stones, glass beads of every colour,[81]—that of lapis lazuli, is the most fashionable in Kordofan,—card-counters.[82] The sale of glass will increase considerably in time, the whole sum expended in this commodity at Cairo does not at present amount to more than twenty-five pounds at the utmost. The Levantine articles are in chief request, such as narghilé,[83] brick,[84] mastrapà,[85] syringes, and common tumblers. From Venice the natives obtain glass beads, and paper dressed in the Turkish fashion. Austrian manufactures finding so ready a market in a large portion of Africa and Asia, and Cairo being the most suitable depot, it is very astonishing that only two Austrian commercial houses should be established in that town: the one is a Bohemian house for the sale of glass beads and looking-glasses, the other a Venetian for the sale of Venetian beads. The Austrian trade thus suffers a great loss, for the Asiatic and African merchant is forced to purchase the imperial produce after it has passed through many hands, and as each agent must make at least a small profit, it is evident that the price of the articles is in this manner considerably raised.

All these goods pass through Cairo, but few of them by way of Suakim and Sennaar. I was the first Austrian subject who made an attempt to traffic with this country, I had not the idea of establishing myself, for my capital was too inconsiderable for that purpose, and, in fact, only intended to defray the expenses of my journey, but I believe that the experience I made may be of great service to others. I caution every one, however, who may intend visiting this country with goods to be on his guard against the white ants, and never to neglect placing his cases on stones, for I have myself unfortunately been a sufferer by the ubiquity of these destructive beasts. During my illness I was incapable of looking after my luggage, and as a consequence found, on my recovery, all my cottons in a perfectly unsaleable state, and this when on my flight at a time when I had moneys to reclaim. The Termites became the cause why I was compelled to return without a servant, and to march during two days on foot through the Desert of Krusko. The prices of goods vary with the seasons; thus, during the rains, when no caravan can arrive from Egypt, and goods are consequently scarce, the prices increase by fifty shillings of their usual cost.

_Coffee_ is imported from Abyssinia, and the ordinary price of the rottolo is three piasters; but in the year 1838, it rose to eighteen piasters (5_s._ 1_d._). During the rainy season sugar stood at nine piasters per rottolo (1lb. English); rice at twelve piasters per oock’ckah; vinegar at fifteen piasters the bottle: soap at nine piasters the rottolo; pepper at twelve piasters; the prices of all goods, however fall with the arrival of fresh supplies. Many of the articles of importation are bought up by Djelabi, who trade with the interior of the country, and barter them away for slaves and other commodity. The commerce with the interior even requires some experience, _e. g._ in respect to glass-beads; for, on some of the hills, the white specimens are in request; on others the red or blue beads are preferred, and the same rule applies to many other articles. A great deal of salt and tobacco is imported into the country of the Shilluks. The Djelabi, in whose hands the entire trade may be said to rest, might turn it to far better advantage, if they had more talent for business, and were less careless in its transaction. Thus they pay no attention to the demands of the market, but purchase, year after year, the same articles, sit themselves down in a sook, and will not quit that spot in quest of fresh supplies until they have sold the very last article, be it ever so trifling. The value of time is totally unknown to them, and as for leaving the remainder of their unsold goods with an agent on commission, a son would not trust his own father, but rather lose the most valuable time for travelling for two or three pounds of soap, and a few trumpery glass-beads. These Djelabi are Dongolavi, and have remained true to the character of their original parents in Dongola. They will rather allow their goods to spoil than part with them below their standard; they sell one article at the same rate as one hundred articles, and make very little difference in price as regards quality; for common or damaged cottons, rusty or intact wire, are all sold at the same price. The merchandize which is not damaged on the road is spoiled in the market-place, where everything is thrown down on the sand in one large heap, and no one troubles himself whether a person in the crowd walk over his goods with dirty feet, or a shower drench them thoroughly. He who first comes selects the best articles, and he who is forced to wait until the greater part is disposed of, takes whatever he may happen to lay his hands on, pays the same price, or sometimes even more, considering the scarcity, but walks away equally contented.

I have convinced myself that the very commonest goods only should be brought to this market, for every man may form an opinion of the manner of transacting business, and of the mode in which the merchandize is treated. I am certain that an European, accustomed to the climate at an early age, and acquainted with the demands of the country, who might establish a commercial-house at Lobeid, and carry on his business with moderate caution, would realize a handsome fortune. But, as I have before said, an European would meet with difficulties, and irksome trials in this undertaking, unknown to the natives. The time for engaging in a speculation of this description is now at hand, for Mehemed Ali is about to throw the trade open.

The currency of the country is that of Egypt, a piaster being equal to three-pence-halfpenny English. The Maria Theresia dollar, column-dollars, and five franc pieces, of which there are three varieties, are taken at an estimate of twenty piasters each, although they virtually differ in value. The dollars, however, when in request for purchases in Darfour, are paid with twenty-two, twenty-three, and even twenty-four piasters; in examining them, the natives do not look to the seven points in the clasp, or the nine points in the diadem, nor to the letters “S. F.” as is the case in Abyssinia. No copper circulates, and very few silver piasters, so that, indeed, in purchasing single piasters, one piaster, _agio_, is paid for nine pieces. In addition to this coin, there is a small coin of iron, named _hashias_, in circulation, struck during the reign of the sultan of Darfûr, which has continued in currency since that period: it is a small piece of iron, from two to three inches in length, and of the form of an obtuse bibrachial anchor. 150 of these pieces were formerly considered equivalent to one dollar; they subsequently fell in value to 250, and their present currency is 800 to the dollar, or one _para_ each. The weight is the same as in Egypt, viz. 1 cantaro, equal to 100, or to 112 rottoli, or to forty-four oock’ckah’s. The rottolo is = 144 oz., the oock’ckah equal to 400 dir’hems. Forty-four oock’ckahs constitute about one hundred weight. The measure for corn is the ardeb of twenty-four _mith_, two ardebs are equivalent to three stajo of Trieste.

Common cottons will pass from hand to hand as currency, and in small dealings half a gourd of dockn, or two handfulls may be substituted for cash. The yard-measure in use among the natives, is the distance from the elbow to the index-finger, adding four finger breadths.