Egyptian Land Reform - Problems Prior To 1952

Problems Prior To 1952

Prior to the 1952 coup that installed Naguib as President, less than six percent of Egypt's population owned more than 65% of the land in Egypt, and less than 0.5% of Egyptians owned more than one-third of all fertile land. These major owners had almost autocratic control over the land they owned and charged high rents which averaged 75% of the income generated by the rented land. These high rents coupled with the high interest rates charged by banks plunged many small farmers and peasants into debt. Furthermore, peasants who worked as laborers on farms also suffered, receiving average wages of only eight to fifteen piastres a day. The combination of these circumstances led historian Anouar Abdel Malek to call the pre-reform Egyptian peasantry "an exploited mass surrounded by hunger, disease and death". Another historian, Robert Stephens has compared the state of Egyptian peasants before land reform to that of French peasants before the French Revolution.