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).
The annual surpluses are largely accounted for by the heavy taxation on almost everything imported into the country, i and by the monopolies on tobacco and on salt; and are as a rule spent, and well spent, in other ways.
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.
