In Syria and Egypt it is the work of several days, and the business of
three or four brokers, to conclude a bargain between two merchants to
the amount of a thousand dollars. At Djidda sales and purchases are made
of entire ships' cargoes in the course of half an hour, and the next day
the money is paid down. The greater part of the merchandize thus bought
is shipped for Suez, and sold at Cairo, whence it finds its way into the
Mediterranean. The returns are made either in goods, which are disposed
of chiefly in the Hedjaz, or in dollars and sequins, large quantities of
which are carried off annually by the Indian fleet: this principally
causes the scarcity of silver in Egypt. The coffee ships
[p.19] from Yemen take a few articles of Egyptian manufacture in return,
as Mellayes, (blue-striped cotton cloths,) linen stuff's for shirts, and
glass beads; but their chief sales are mostly for cash.
If Suez were to participate in the direct Indian trade, the present
flourishing state of Djidda would, no doubt, be greatly diminished, and
the town would become merely what its position renders it, the harbour
of the Hedjaz, instead of being, as it now is, the port of Egypt.
