Mohamed Talaat bin Hassan Mohamed Harb (November 25, 1867 - August 13, 1941) was an Egyptian economist and thinker. He was a member of the Egyptian Senate. He is the founder of Banque Misr and its group of subsidiaries. He worked on liberating the Egyptian economy from foreign dependence and contributed to the establishment of Banque Misr and many giant companies bearing the name of Egypt such as Misr Spinning and Weaving, Misr Air, Misr Insurance, Misr Mines and Quarries, Misr Petroleum Industry and Refining, Misr Tourism, Studio Misr and others.
He was born in Cairo and graduated from the Law School in 1889 and joined the work of a translator in the judicial department in the "Sunni Department", then became head of the Accounting Department and then Director of the Disputes Office until he became the Director of the Cases Registry. In 1905 he moved to work as a director of the Kom Ombo company in its head office in Cairo, then as a director of the Egyptian Real Estate Company, which he worked on Egyptianizing until the majority of its shares became Egyptians. In mobilizing public opinion to reject and oppose this proposal, he published his book "Egypt and the Suez Canal". These efforts later resulted in the Parliament rejecting this proposal.
He participated in the 1919 revolution, after which the idea of a national bank for the Egyptians began to be liberated from the foreign banking monopoly. However, in 1940 the bank suffered from a major financial crisis under the pressure of both the Egyptian government and the British occupation authorities, and the National Bank refused to grant it loans against the guarantee of the stock portfolio. Crisis, forcing him to resign from the bank in 1939.
Talaat Harb also had many literary and cultural contributions, most notably his famous opposition to the writings and ideas of Qassem Amin, which made him publish his two books: The Education of Women and the Hijab and The Book of Discourse on Women and the Hijab. He was a member of the Geographical Society. Talaat Harb died in 1941 AD in a village belonging to Faraskour in Damietta.
its upbringing
Talaat Harb was born on November 25, 1867 in the Qasr Al-Shouq area in Al-Gamaliya neighborhood and in the vicinity of Al-Hussein Mosque. To the Saqr family of a village belonging to Minya al-Qamh as well.
Talaat Harb memorized the Qur’an in his childhood, then joined Al Tawfiqia Secondary School in Cairo. He then joined the Khedivial School of Law in August 1885 and obtained a law school certificate in 1889 and was one of the first graduates. In addition to studying law, he was interested in studying economic matters, as well as accessing many books in various fields of knowledge and science, and he studied the French language until he mastered it fully.
Talaat Harb began his working life as a translator with a pen to work as a translator in the judicial department in the "Sunni Department" - the body that managed the Khedive's private properties. Issues: Talaat Harb's efficiency in managing projects caused some notables to use him, most notably Omar Sultan Pasha, who was considered one of the richest people in Egypt at that time, and who was entrusted with managing his business permanently. These works contributed to giving him extensive experience in administrative and commercial matters. He also enjoyed a good reputation and was considered one of the most prominent administrative cadres in that period.
his first life
In 1905, he moved to work as a director of the Kom Ombo Company at its headquarters in Cairo, which was active in the field of land reclamation and sale, and resigned from it in 1909. Talaat Harb was given the title of Beykoy.
During this period, Egypt was suffering from non-Egyptians taking over all positions and businesses, as well as suffering from an economic crisis that was paid for by the simple citizen, in addition to the conditions of colonialism that began in 1882. Talaat Harb believed that the first steps of liberation from colonialism came with the necessity The Egyptianization of the economy, which was mostly in the hands of foreigners, and perhaps this is what encouraged him to study economics and master the French language.
At the beginning of his life, Talaat Harb was also a brilliant writer, and he mocked many of his writings about discussing the issues of the Islamic world and the issues of Egypt, especially in 1894 after the conference of Orientalists in Paris, so Othman Kamel (Secretary of the Sultan) gifted Talaat Harb a message in defense of the Islamic religion Talaat Harb translated it into Arabic and titled it (A word of truth about Islam and the Ottoman Empire), then gifted it to the Egyptian people, in addition to writing articles in newspapers against these campaigns. In the early twentieth century, Qassem Amin published his first book, "The Liberation of Women," which was clearly opposed by Talaat Harb, as the literary war between them continued for a while.
In 1910, the Canal Company submitted a request to the Egyptian government to extend the concession period of the Suez Canal Company, which was to expire on November 17, 1968, for another 40 years ending in 2008. The British government and the occupation authority took a position in favor of extending the concession “especially as the navigational movement in the Canal began to double what it was before.” British goods represented 78.6% of the total goods passing through the canal.
But the Egyptian national movement, led by Muhammad Farid, led a sweeping attack on the demand for tide and turned public opinion against it. Ibrahim al-Wardani, who assassinated Prime Minister Boutros Ghali Pasha in 1910, stated among his confessions that he did it for several reasons, including what he mentioned about the efforts of Boutros Ghali Pasha. To extend the privilege of the Canal, and Talaat Harb wrote a book on the Suez Canal to explain the public and private facts about the history of the Canal, and how Egypt's shares, profits and losses were lost until 1909 AD. He concluded by saying that the shares that Egypt sold at 560 francs per share became, after thirty years, 5010 francs per share, and its share of the channel’s profits that sold it at 22 million francs became 300 million francs, and Talaat Harb printed and published this book, which contributed to The creation of popular pressure prompted the General Assembly (People’s Assembly) to assign Muhammad Talaat Harb and Samir Sabry to write a report on the subject. Offer to extend the concession of the Suez Canal Company. The concession remained in place on its terms until the nationalization came in 1956, 12 years before the concession ended.
Despite the roles of Talaat Harb al-Watani in that period and Mustafa Kamel’s praise of him for his role in helping the peasants during his work as the director of the Registry of the Sunni Department, as well as for his strong position in defending the veil and beliefs, he was frequently criticized by the figures of the national movement, including Muhammad Farid, especially since he was not One of the supporters of the principles of Mustafa Kamel, and even opposed to them, and he worked to win over his friend Omar Sultan Pasha, a member of the National Party, and work to stop his financial support. A radical change in the following years, and the thinker Fathi Radwan suggested that this change was caused by the spread of national awareness in this period, and the increase in the revolutionary tide that all of Egypt witnessed before the 1919 revolution, which blew up many national motives among many.
Economic role
In 1911, Talaat Harb presented his intellectual vision and theoretical judgments on how to bring about his cultural revolution through his book “Egypt’s Economic Cure and the Establishment of a Bank for the Egyptians.” He participated in their defense when the Sunni district was liquidated and sought to sell the land to the peasants who cultivated it. Global cotton prices had witnessed an increase, but it did not benefit the simple Egyptian farmer, as there was no financial system to support them, despite the establishment of the Bank of Egypt and the National Bank, but they were intended to finance foreigners only, and the conditions of colonialism at the time caused the drain of resources The Egyptian economy is only for their interests.
Therefore, Talaat Harb started his lawsuit in 1906 in order to establish a purely Egyptian financial system to serve the people of the country and also to seek liberation from economic colonial restrictions. Financial loans to financially insolvent small companies. He was also helped by the return of Dr. Fouad Sultan from abroad, who was considered one of the most prominent economic experts, and who provided full support to Talaat Harb's endeavors.
Talaat Harb published his book "Egypt's Economic Cure", in which he presented his idea of the necessity of establishing a bank for Egyptians to serve economic projects in Egypt and consider social problems. But these efforts were hampered by World War I. The idea of establishing the bank came back after the 1919 revolution in Egypt.
Bank idea
The idea of establishing an Egyptian national bank has been a dream of many since the days of Muhammad Ali Pasha. Although Muhammad Ali, before his death, ordered the establishment of a bank with a capital of 700,000 riyals, the bank’s project collapsed, like all other projects of the governor of Egypt, when he fell ill after the fruits of his wars against him were lost as a result of international complicity in the siege of his power.
Then the idea of (Bank of Misr) came back to life after Amin Shamil called for it in an article on April 26, 1879 in the newspaper “Al-Tijaria”. Khedive Ismail and between the Khedive, which took place in the wake of the Urabi Revolution impeded the completion of the idea. Orabi's famous friend, "Mr. Blunt," tells in his memoirs of the Urabi Revolution about Orabi's determination to establish a "credit bank" for farmers, had the occupation raided the Urabi government and ended the project.
After that, the idea of Banque Misr re-emerged when Omar Lotfi Bey, a member of the National Party and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law, began giving lectures at the High Schools Club, starting on the first day in November 1908, about the cooperation and credit system in Germany and Italy; But the idea suffered from a dispute between the progressive and reactionary currents, and the idea did not succeed again except with the efforts of Talaat Harb, who began to put forward the idea in some of his speeches. The establishment of an Egyptian bank The conference decided unanimously that an Egyptian bank should be established with Egyptian capital. It also decided to choose Muhammad Talaat Harb Pasha to travel to Europe to study the idea of establishing the bank after making a sufficient study on national banks and their method of operation in European countries. When Muhammad Talaat Harb Pasha’s book was published after that , every Egyptian believed in the idea he advocated and its implementation, but the First World War, which was declared on August 4, 1914, led to the postponement of the idea of the bank for more than 8 years, and the call for the establishment of the bank came back after the 1919 revolution.
Create a bank
Talaat Harb persuaded one hundred and twenty-six Egyptians to subscribe to establish the bank, and what they subscribed to was eighty thousand pounds, representing twenty thousand shares, meaning that they made the price of the share only four pounds, and the largest shareholder was Abdel Azim Al-Masry Bey from Maghagha notables who bought one thousand shares. On Tuesday, April 13, 1920, the Egyptian Gazette published in the Official Gazette of the State a decree establishing an Egyptian joint-stock company called “Bank Misr.” Prior to that, the contract for the establishment of the company had been concluded between eight and twenty-six shareholders, all of whom were Egyptians, and was issued in a customary capacity on March 8, 1920. - Then he registered on April 3 - that is, less than a month later, and these eight are: Ahmed Medhat Yakan Pasha, Youssef Aslan Kattawi Pasha, Mohamed Talaat Bey, Abdel Azim Al Masri Bey, Dr. Fouad Sultan, Abdel Hamid Al Sioufi Effendi, Iskandar Masihah Effendi, Abbas Bassiouni Khatib Effendi.
Other projects
Only two years after the establishment of Banque Misr, Talaat Harb in 1922 AD established the first Egyptian printing press with a capital of five thousand pounds in order to support thought and literature and strengthen the national resistance, and the capital of the printing press after a period of more than 50 thousand pounds.
After the establishment of the printing press, the Egyptian companies established by the bank, such as the Misr Land Transport Company, which purchased the first buses to transport passengers, and the company also purchased large trucks to transport goods from the ports; The bank also established the Misr Company for River Transport and then the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla al-Kubra. Talaat Harb brought in experts in this industry from Belgium and sent missions of workers and technicians for training abroad. It also established a cotton ginning factory in Beni Suef, and the bank established stores (Shun) to collect cotton in all the governorates of Egypt.
He also contributed to the establishment of the Misr Company for Acting and Cinema, and in 1927 he established Misr Transport and Maritime Transport, Misr for Armed Cement Works, Misr for Dyeing, Misr for Mines and Quarries, Misr for Oils Trading and Manufacturing, Misr for Pharmaceuticals, Misr for Dairy and Nutrition, Misr for Chemicals, and Misr for Hotels, and Misr Insurance, and Talaat Harb established a company for the sale of Egyptian manufactures to compete with foreign companies, Banzaioun - Sednawi and others.
Talaat Harb sought to establish an EgyptAir company until a royal decree was issued on May 27, 32, establishing EgyptAir as the first airline in the Middle East with a capital of 20,000 pounds, and after ten months the capital increased to 75,000 pounds, and the company started with two aircraft "Dragon Death" with two engines, each accommodating eight passengers, and the first line was from Cairo to Alexandria and then Marsa Matrouh, and the second line was from Cairo to Aswan. In 1934 the company's first overseas line started from Cairo to Jerusalem.
These national projects contributed to fueling the patriotic spirit in this period, as these projects encouraged many to the idea of saving with the bank, and the bank’s deposits increased compared to all foreign banks operating in Egypt, which ended the colonial saying that was repeated at the time, “The Egyptian knows only debt.” Where the Bank of Egypt was able to stimulate savings among all Egyptians, even children, after the bank distributed money boxes to primary school students, then took what was in them and opened saving books for the children in the bank.
The projects also encouraged citizens to buy the products of these companies as an alternative to foreign goods. Some thinkers also established the “Al-Masry for the Egyptian” group and worked to encourage citizens, merchants and factories to deal with Egyptian companies. Prime Minister Noqrashi Pasha contributed to the establishment of a small exhibition of products in the Saadi Club. This is why the Egyptian Industries Company was established in 1932, and many branches were opened across the country.
overseas projects
Talaat Harb was looking forward to Banque Misr playing a greater role in the Arab countries, and opening other areas to spread the idea of the bank and more joint cooperation. Existence of national financial systems.
In December 1935, Talaat Harb visited Sudan and was able to meet with the Governor-General of Sudan, and at the beginning of 1936 he visited the Hejaz and contributed to the completion of the Jeddah and Makkah Hospitals and also contributed to the establishment of the complete ambulance facility in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, and the Hijazi currency was suffering from turmoil up and down during the Hajj seasons As a result of the foreign exchange rates in Jeddah, which prompted Talaat Harb to convince the government that Banque Misr collect the cost of the Hajj before the pilgrims travel, and then collect the value at once on the basis of the gold base, which contributed to the stability of the currency.
The Iraqi government invited him, so he visited Iraq, then went to the Arab Exhibition in Damascus and then visited Beirut, and the visit contributed to the establishment of the Bank of Egypt - Syria - Lebanon.
Talaat Harb was a member of the board of directors of foreign companies before the establishment of Banque Misr. These relations contributed to opening new doors to foreign transactions. On November 22, 1936, he established Banque Misr - France in Paris.
his resignation
Despite the success achieved by Banque Misr and the economic achievements it made, the crises fabricated by the British occupation authorities and the beginnings of the Second World War led to a state of economic depression and prompted many fears to withdraw their deposits with Banque Misr, which caused a liquidity crisis, which increased The crisis withdrew the Postal Savings Fund for all his deposits from the bank, and the English governor of Al-Ahly Bank at the time refused to lend him the guarantee of the stock portfolio, and when Talaat Harb went to the Minister of Finance at the time, Hussein Seri Pasha to solve this problem, and asked him to either the government issue a statement guaranteeing the people’s deposits with the bank Or to get the National Bank to lend Banque Misr against the wallet, or to order a halt to the withdrawal of postal savings fund deposits, but Hussein Serry refused this at the behest of Ali Maher Pasha because Talaat Harb had supported his opponent Al-Nahhas Pasha before, and the minister suggested a solution to this However, he stipulated that Talaat Harb submit his resignation, and he immediately accepted this condition in order to save the bank, and said his famous speech:
As long as I leave the bank, let me go and let the bank live.
his death
After his resignation from the management of Banque Misr, Talaat Harb moved to live in the village of Anania, in the Faraskour Center in Damietta, where he lived far from the limelight, and died on the thirteenth of August 1941 at the age of 74 years in Cairo. His funeral was held in his house on Ramses Street. The funeral was attended by: the king's delegate, Mustafa Al-Nahhas Pasha, the prime minister, and many political figures such as: Ahmed Maher Pasha, Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mustafa Al-Maraghi, the representative of the Coptic Patriarchate, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and the Sheikh of Sufi sheikhs. And many senior government officials and foreign commissions, members of the Board of Directors and employees of Banque Misr. Many poets also mourned him with poems of lamentation, such as Abbas Al-Akkad, Ihsan Abdel Quddus, Saleh Jawdat, and Prince of Poets Ahmed Shawky.
0 Comments