Bank Misr and the emergence of the local bourgeoisie in Egypt

Our conception of the local bourgeoisie differs from that held by many writers on Egypt by being confined to that social class or socio-economic group which sought the protection and the establishment of industrial and financial enterprises as such, and that independently from, and at the expense of, foreign commercial interests. The latter consisted of agents of foreign commercial firms who were opposed to the development of local industry in Egypt. Only Egyptian merchants, whose interests were strongly tied to local industry, are regarded here as members of this bourgeoisie. The inter-war period is of paramount importance in understanding the emergence of the local bourgeoisie and clarifying some of the misconceptions concerning the role of this bourgeoisie. Contrary to what Abdel-Malek and Girgis claim, the two main groups of the local bourgeoisie, namely, the Bank Misr group and the Association of Industries, were basically at loggerheads with foreign commercial interests such as the British Chamber of Commerce of Egypt, during the 1920s. Both glossed over the important distinction between the role of the Bank Misr group and even that of the local bourgeoisie as a whole, and the foreign commercial interests. Abdel-Malek grouped, unjustifiably, what we have called the local bourgeoisie and the foreign commercial interests into one group or class, namely, the 'upper bourgeoisie'. Girgis used the term 'national bourgeoisie' exclusively with respect to the Wafd.1 Furthermore, the Bank Misr group tried to act as the nucleus of a national and an independent bourgeoisie in spite of its reliance on large landowners. However, both Abdel-Malek and Girgis underestimated Bank Misr's contribution to the economic ideology of the nationalist movement in Egypt and in particular of the Wafd. Thus the aim of this article is to trace the emergence of a local bourgeoisie in Egypt as a fully-fledged class by the end of the 1930s. We called it local and not Egyptian because it was predominantly composed of members of the local foreign minorities, although there was also an important Egyptian section, namely, the Bank Misr group. The latter began as the nucleus of a national bourgeoisie, that is, an Egyptian and independent bourgeoisie, whose ideology was embodied in the doctrine of 'economic independence'. The other section of the local bourgeoisie was the Federation of Industries, which was dominated by local foreigners. We shall examine each section separately during the 1920s and 1930s because they had basically different objectives. Nevertheless, we show the factors which led to their eventual coalescence and the consequent formation of a local bourgeoisie, which continued to exist until the early 1960's. Finally, we shall also examine this local bourgeoisie as it