Britain and Her Rivals in the Middle East 81
prevent the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was to oust Ibrahim
from Syria. He accordingly succeeded in July 1840 in bringing
about an agreement between Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia,
by which Mohammed AH was presented with an ultimatum to
evacuate Syria, with the threat of losing all his possessions if he
procrastinated unduly. This threat to their protege caused great in-
dignation in Paris and the French government threatened war; but
Palmerston knew that it was unprepared for such extremes and
kept up the pressure of the Powers on Mohammed All While the
French government vacillated and eventually fell, British and
Ottoman forces blockaded and occupied Beirut and Akka, and
forced Ibrahim to evacuate Syria and Palestine. His father had to
give back the Ottoman fleet, but was confirmed in the hereditary
pashaliq of Egypt. The Second Syrian War was over. As the
French historian Driault ruefully comments, 'All the advantages r,
had fallen to Britain. She had pushed back Mohammed All and j
France in the south, Russia in the north, and kept open for the j
future the overland route to India via Iraq. She had made safe the]
development of her influence along this route. She was pre-i
eminent in the lands of the Levant/ 3
In the previous twenty years, while numbers of French officials
were being introduced into Mohammed All's service, Britain was
less obviously, and certainly less consciously, establishing her
commercial predominance in Egypt. The key to this was the
Egyptian production of high-grade cotton, which had been
fostered by Mohammed An and was first introduced to the
"Spinners of Lancashire in 1821. The export of cotton from Egypt
actually increased 200 times in the next three years and became
from now on her principal export. It was absorbed in the main by
Britain, whose factory-made cottons now displaced the more ex-
pensive hand-woven French fabrics. Soon after 1830 British trade
with Egypt was greater than that of any other country. By 1849,
the year of Mohammed Ali's death, she provided 41 per cent of
Egypt's imports and took 49 per cent, of her exports.
But since the defence of her position in India remained a cardinal
feature of her overseas policy, she was not anxious to see com-
munications through the Middle East modernized or made more
speedy to give an opportunity to any jealous and aggressive Power
to assail her. She had refused in 1834 to give any financial guaran-
tees for a proposed railway to connect Alexandria, Cairo, and