CHRONICLE OF ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-GABARTI AS A SOURCE ON MONEY CIRCULATION AND PRICES IN EGYPT DURING THE REIGN OF MUHAMMAD ALI
The article examines the economy, currency circulation, foreign and market trade in Egypt at the beginning of the 19th century during the time of the de facto ruler of the country, Pasha Muhammad Ali, who established the strictest supervision of free market relations. The author cites data from a contemporaneous work by Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Gabarti that contains clear evidence showing how the government’s prohibitive measures negatively affected the state of the market, trade and overall welfare of the country. Exact measures of weight and count, currency exchange rates and real consequences of the introduction of restrictive economic measures in the country are all given and described.