The American University in Cairo ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS HISTORY RESEARCH CENTRE CHRONICLES JULY 2005, VOL 1/1 The Editor’s Note 1 The Director’s Note 1 h Index - “Al-Dalil” 3 May 2005 Forum Industrial Revolution Crippled by Lack of Innovation 5 r A Historical Glance at the Egyptian Textile Industry Before it Migrates 7 An Egyptian Car Called Fiat: Egypt’s Experiment in the o Automotive Industry 9 Fouad Sultan: A Champion of Economic Liberalism 11 The Rentier State in The Middle East: Oil…& Others? 13 n Hearing the Voices of Egyptian and African Firms 15 Seminar Series Listening for History: A Report on “Oral History: Scope, i Fidelity and Methodology” 17 Young Scholars Papers A Tale of Two Banks; A Bank’s History in Perspective 21 c Documenting the History of the Century-Old Café Riche 23 Heliopolis: Beyond the Centenary 25 l Appendix: Archives 27 e Announcments 28 s EDITOR’S NOTE... he Economic and Business History Research Centre (EBHRC) CONTRIBUTORS originated while embracing a spirit to provide a forum through Twhich young graduates interested in academic research can Editor: Dina Khalifa explore a wide scope of research topics via the various activities of the Centre. EBHRC’s The Chronicles is yet another medium through Copy Editor: Prof. John Salevurakis which the goal of promoting historical research, particularly in eco- nomic and business history, is sought. Business history, being a virgin Director, EBHRC: Prof. Abdelaziz Ezzelarab field in Egypt and the Middle East, is a perfect match for a centre that brings together the voices of the past through oral history and Project Officers: Mostafa Hefny the young researchers. A pool of activities: An annual May Forum, Wael Ismail a seminar series and a Young Scholars Conference, crystallize the Karim El-Sayed activities of the Centre. Reporting them launches the first issue of Dina Waked The Chronicles. Young Scholars Contributors: The Chronicles is meant to provide a space for EBHRC’s historical Lina Attalah records outside archival boxes to reach a wider crowd. Beyond the Mohamed I. Fahmy Menza closed seminar rooms and workshops, The Chronicles becomes an outlet for the researchers to share their reflections on the various Layout &Design: Magda Elsehrawi issues that they come across in their work. Borrowing from a grow- ing collection of oral history records, a rich material craves to be Logo: exposed and such a publication becomes a convenient channel. Nadine Kenawy While digging through the narratives of the past, the present still haunts us. Amid enthusiasm to explore new projects, EBHRC ******* embarked on a project of producing an index for contemporary economic and business news items, namely “al-Dalil.” A reflection About EBHRC on this project is included in the first issue of The Chronicles. Like the EBHRC Executive Committee: index project, The Chronicles is also a forum to shed light on signifi- Prof. Ahmed Kamaly cant current economic and business affairs. Prof. Nagla Rizk Prof. John Salevurakis This issue begins a journey of producing a periodic publication that Prof. Herbert Thompson reports on the Centre’s activities and provides to the reader rich substantive pieces of writing that bounce between the history and EBHRC Supporting Institutes: the present. Center for Middle East Studies, Harvard University Dina Khalifa, Project Officer, EBHRC Near East Studies Program, Princeton University Princeton Institute of International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR... Middle East Center, University of Washington his month, the Economic and Business History Research Centre Global Business Center, Business School, (EBHRC) will complete its first year of existence. In our first year of University of Washington Toperation, we worked in several directions to fulfill our mission of Office of Provost, AUC acting as a centre for documentation and research in the eco- Office of Dean of BEC, AUC nomic and business history of Egypt and the Middle East. EBHRC Collaborating Scholars: Oral History was one of our most vibrant activities in terms of its Prof. Ellis Goldberg, outcome and the energies it claimed in background re s e a rc h , (University of Washington) interviewing, transcription, and liaising with interviewees for text Prof. Roger Owen (Harvard) a p p roval. We already have on hand some 64 hours of re c o rd e d interviews with former high state officials, economists, corporate Prof. Robert Tignor (Princeton University) executives, businessmen, and entre p reneurs. Some 25% of these Prof. Robert Vitalis re c o rds have already been transcribed and are at diff e re n t (University of Pennsylvania) phases of obtaining interviewees’ permission to make them avail- able for re s e a rchers. There are two areas that need enhance- ment during the coming year as far as oral history is concerned: 1 bringing up the process of transcription to a level closer rate affairs through intense extractions from selected to par with interviewing and beginning systematic papers and magazines. Since this was taken on trial indexing of the contents of various interviews and tran- basis, we confined ourselves to three Arabic daily scripts. papers and three weekly publications (two in Arabic). Our attempt resulted in some 60-page index that cov- Another vibrant area of activity is Young Scholars ers March 05, to which we gave the title al-Dalil (‘The Research. Our pool of ‘Young Scholars’(YS) includes Directory’ or ‘The Guide’). The experiment showed that over 60 names of recent graduates with active or this is an activity that requires a very substantial share of potential involvement in the centre’s activities. The most available resources at the expense of other activities active among them are the four Project Officers who that involve the direct gathering of material or con- are employed on full time basis to conduct the various ducting research. We accordingly decided to discon- activities, including oral history, conference organiza- tinue it until such time when we could assemble a team tion, and publications. This year, together with other YS, dedicated mainly to this particular work, possibly under they conducted methodological and field research on some special funding arrangement. topics that included the study of business history in US academia and its relevance to Egypt, entrepreneurial As The Chronicles comes close to its first appearance, initiatives in large enterprise, as well as case studies of our role as a Service center for researchers is beginning small businesses, suburban development projects, and to be realized. We are just starting to receive requests foreign business communities. Field research involved from scholars and graduate students to access the fairly intensive use of oral history and new archival material presently in our possession. This has begun material. recently as awareness of our existence began to spread through the previous activities as well as other During the spring semester, some of the results of this contacts with scholars and institutions at home and re s e a rch were disseminated through a series of abroad. We expect this demand to increase with con- Seminars and Conferences that also provided an tinued activities and communication, particularly with opportunity to explore the employed methods and to the circulation of The Chronicles among interested address new areas of inquiry. A revised version of some scholars and centers. of this research will be presented in MESA 05 in a panel titled ‘Egyptian Business History: New Sources, New We hope that The Chronicles will be a venue for spread- Methods and New Directions’. ing awareness of our existence and interacting with our readers and potential constituencies. Through this As explained in another section of The Chronicles, venue, we hope to acquaint the readers with our stock EBHRC was the outcome of meetings held during the of source material, keep them abreast of fresh additions ‘First AUC Forum for the Economic and Business History to that stock, and investigate possible research ques- of Egypt and the Middle East’ that was held in May 04. tions that this material could open up. In addition, we In keeping up with this tradition, the centre organized will be using it to make calls for papers and a news bul- the ‘Second AUC Forum for the Economic and Business letin on the center’s activities in general. Furthermore, History of Egypt and the Middle East’ in May 05. Through through a close scrutiny of current periodicals on Egypt a number of closed workshops with former ministers, and the Middle East, we will try to make of T h e corporate executives, and business people, the Forum Chronicles a tool for following ‘history in the making’, so involved the accumulation of fresh source material on to speak, through news and focus captions that cap- Egyptian industrialization and industrial policy, tourism, ture current events of historical significance in public and the textiles and automotive sectors. The use of this policy, economics, and business affairs. gathering as a forum for accumulating fresh material highlights its unique nature in contrast to other scholarly Finally, there remains a word of due thanks. Like all else gatherings. that EBHRC has done in its first year of existence, The Chronicles comes out by the energies and hard work of During our first year of operation, our Archival Collection the center’s crew of young Project Officers: Karim El- relied mainly on documents which we acquired in the Sayed, Mostafa Hefny, Wael Ismail, Dina Khalifa and course of field research, as well as donations of docu- Dina Waked whom we are losing to Harvard Law School ments or publications by our expanding list of contacts soon. It is their energies that carried the center through- particularly those generated through oral history efforts.