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THE PYRAMID AND THE CROWN: THE EGYPTIAN BEER INDUSTRY FROM 1897 TO 1963

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2014

Omar D. Foda
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Abstract

This paper focuses on a long-running and understudied Egyptian economic institution, the beer industry. While the presence of a well-developed beer industry in a predominantly Muslim country is noteworthy in itself, it is the consistent profitability of this industry despite the vicissitudes of Egypt's economic and political development that have made it truly remarkable. Relying heavily on archival material, including documents preserved in Cairo's Dar al-Wathaʾiq (Egyptian National Archives), this paper tracks the development of the beer industry in Egypt from 1897, when Belgian entrepreneurs started the Pyramid and Crown breweries, to the 1960s, when the Egyptian government nationalized the two companies. This analysis uses the history of the beer company to map larger social and economic trends in the colonial and semicolonial Egyptian economy (1882–1963) and to further problematize the foreign/Egyptian dichotomy that shapes discussions of it.

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Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 139 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

NOTES

Author's note: Many thanks to Heather Sharkey, Robert Vitalis, Peter Gran, Joel Gordon, Nancy Reynolds, Elias Saba, Alon Tam, the incredibly helpful and kind staff at the Dar al-Wathaʾiq in Cairo, Amelia, Hussein, Karen, and Joyce Foda. I presented an earlier version of this work at the MESA annual meeting in 2011 and thank the panelists and those in attendance for their comments and suggestions. Finally, I thank the editors of IJMES and the four anonymous reviewers for their incisive criticism and incredibly valuable input.

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