The Egyptian Stock Exchange in its glory years is beautifully
remembered in this collector's volume of stock and bond certificates and
brief histories of the Egyptian companies which issued them
This large-format album of reproduced images of choice stock and bond
certificates issued in by registered companies through the Egyptian
Bourse, or Stock Exchange, will be a source of delight and fascination,
not only for scripophilists, notaphilists, and economists, but for
anyone interested in early twentieth-century Egyptian financial history
and memorabilia and the aesthetic value of these beautiful collectors'
items. Each certificate tells a story about the company which issued it,
and the fascinating and dynamic business families that drove Egypt's
economy at the time.
Founded in 1903 at the behest of Maurice "Moise" Cattaui Bey
(1848-1924), scion of one of Cairo's then most powerful business
families, the newly incorporated Bourse and Banking Company of Egypt
Limited, also known as the Bourse Khediviale du Caire, was initially
housed in the Manuk Building, once home to the Ottoman Bank on Adly
(formerly Maghrabi) Street. It was later moved to a building at the
center of Cairo's downtown district of Ismailia, not far from the
National Bank of Egypt (today's Central Bank). The real-estate boom
which began in Cairo around 1895 would end in what became known in the
annals of speculative history as the Crash of 1907. In The Egyptian
Bourse Samir Raafat tells the story of the rise and fall of the
Egyptian Bourse, from the sale of the century by Khedive Ismail of
Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal in 1875 to the Free Officers coup of
1952. Beautifully illustrated with more than fifty vintage shares and
stocks in full color.
