This was constituted in 1886 and was chiefly made up of the net savings of the Egyptian government on its share of the annual surpluses from revenue.
From 1885-1886 onwards, outlay on public works, military and colonial expenditure, and especially the commercial and financial crises, contributed to produce annual deficits; but owing to drastic reforms introduced in 1894-1895 and to careful management the year 1898-1899 marked a return of surpluses (nearly 1,306,400).
From 1876, when equilibrium between expenditure and revenue had first been attained, taxation yielded steady annual surpluses, which in 1881 reached the satisfactory level of 2,120,000.
At the same time a new General Reserve Fund was created, made up chiefly of the surpluses of the old General Reserve, Special Reserve, and Conversion Economies funds.
This new fund started with a capital of 13,376,000 and was replenished by the surpluses of subsequent years, by the interest earned by its temporary investment, and by the sums accruing by the liquidation of the Daira and Domains loans.
