Question

In 1875, Egypt sold its shares of the Suez Canal to pay off debts. Which country bought the shares?

Answer 1

The shares were sold to the British goverment in 1875.

The Universal Maritime Suez Canal Company was the enterprise which built the Suez Canal between 1859 and 1869, and was in charge of its operation until 1956, when the Suez crisis took place and the canal was nationalized by the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Originally, French investors controlled most of the shares and Egyptians also owned a significant proportion.

In 1863, when Isma'il Pasha was appointed Wāli of Egypt and Sudan (leader of these territories that pertained to the Ottoman Empire), he refused to renew the concesions that his predecessor had made to the canal company. In 1875, due to a financial crisis, Isma'il Pasha was forced to sell the Egyptian shares to the British to the British for only £3,976,582.