Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, (; 26 February 1841 – 29 January 1917) was a British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator. He served as the British controller-general in Egypt during 1879, part of the international control which oversaw Egyptian finances after the Egyptian bankruptcy of 1876. He later became the agent and consul-general in Egypt from 1883 to 1907 during the British occupation, prompted by the Urabi revolt. This position gave Baring de facto control over Egyptian finances and governance.
Baring's programmes led to limited economic development in Egypt in certain areas, but deepened its dependence on cash crops, as well as regressing some of its social developments (such as the state school system).
Early life and military career
Baring was the ninth son of Henry Baring and his second wife, Cecilia Anne (née Windham). The English branch of the Baring family descends from Johann Baring (later, "John"), who emigrated from Germany in 1717. John's son Sir Francis was the founder of Barings Bank. Henry was the third son of Sir Francis. When he died in 1848, seven-year old Evelyn was sent to boarding school. When he was 14, he entered the Royal Military Academy, graduating at 17 with a lieutenant's commission in the Royal Artillery. He was initially posted to a battery on the island of Corfu.
While on Corfu, Baring became aware of his own lack of education, and began a campaign of self-education, learning Greek and becoming fluent in Italian. He also took a mistress and fathered a daughter out of wedlock, Louisa Sophia. In 1862, he accepted a position as aide-de-camp to Sir Henry Storks, High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. This position ended in 1864, with the union of Corfu with Greece. Later in 1864, Storks was appointed the governor of Malta, again employing Baring as an aide-de-camp. The next year Baring accompanied Storks to Jamaica, where Storks headed the official inquiry into the Morant Bay rebellion. In 1868, Baring was selected to attend the Army's Staff College; he graduated in late 1869. He then worked for two years in the War Office, helping to implement post-Crimean War reforms. In 1871 he was promoted to second captain.
Finding a military career not to his liking, Baring went to India in 1872 as private secretary to his cousin Lord Northbrook, Viceroy of India, and quickly discovered that he had a knack for administration. With Northbrook's resignation in 1876, Baring returned to England and married Ethel Errington, daughter of Sir Rowland Errington, 11th Baronet. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) and promoted to major in 1878. The following year he resigned from the army.
British Controller-General of Egypt
When Baring first arrived in Egypt in 1877, the country's finances were in shambles. Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, borrowed millions of pounds from European financiers for projects to build the Suez Canal, his personal use, and to cover persistent tax shortfalls. His finances depended on money obtained from Egypt's cotton industry, which flourished during the American Civil War. But after the war, as American cotton entered European markets once again, the price of cotton fell dramatically. As a result, Egypt's cotton was no longer the cash crop it used to be. Ismail Pasha found himself unable to pay off even the interest on his debts.
At first, Ismail attempted to call on his parliament to raise more tax money, but Parliament resisted, as it consisted mostly of large landowners, who were lightly taxed. In desperation, Ismail turned to the European powers to help him out of his financial troubles. After some rocky negotiations the Dual Control system was instituted, whereby a French and a British controller were appointed to oversee Egypt's finances. Sir Evelyn Baring was appointed as the British Controller. Egyptian historian Afaf Lufti al-Sayyid-Marsot considers this desperate attempt on Ismail's part to obtain European help to have opened the way for foreign control of Egypt's finances, and eventual incorporation of Egypt into the British Empire.
Despite, Sir Evelyn's ties to Barings Bank through his family, and that bank's significant financial stake in Egyptian debt, no concern for apparent conflict of interest in his appointment was ever apparent; nor did the possibility of mixed motives ever give the government pause in supporting Baring's economic programmes.
Baring and his fellow controller's de facto control of Egypt's finances meant they wielded considerable influence in both the Egyptian and British governments. When Ismail refused to declare bankruptcy, Baring pressured his government to depose Ismail, which they did in 1879. The general population of Egypt widely blamed Ismail for the country's financial struggles, and his removal was greeted with relief. Ismail was succeeded by his son Tawfiq, who cooperated with the European consuls.
The 'Urabi Revolt, led by Ahmed 'Urabi, a rising Egyptian colonel, endangered the Khedivate. After the subsequent intervention by the British in Alexandria (the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War), Baring returned from India to Egypt as the British agent and consul-general, "with a mandate for minor reforms and a prompt withdrawal of British troops". Baring though advocated for a continued occupation of Egypt and disparaged Egyptian demands for independence.
Baring's first act as Consul-General was to approve of the Dufferin Report, which essentially called for a puppet parliament with no real power. The report asserted the need for British supervision of reforms deemed necessary for the country. It stated the interests of the Suez Canal zone should always be maintained. Baring believed that because of Egyptian administrative incompetence, a long occupation was essential to any sort of reform. He established a new guiding principle for Egypt known as the Granville Doctrine (named for the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Granville). The doctrine enabled Baring and other British officials to fill the government with those Egyptian politicians that would be cooperative with the British and the power to dismiss Egyptian ministers who refused to accept British directives. Under Baring, British officials were positioned in key ministries and a new system, known as the Veiled Protectorate, was introduced. Essentially, the government was a façade. Egyptian ministers were the outward form, yet British officials held the actual power. Baring thus remained the real ruler of Egypt until 1907, and this arrangement worked well for the first ten years of British control because Tawfiq Pasha was a weak man more than happy to abdicate any governmental responsibility.
The Egyptian army, which Baring considered utterly untrustworthy due to its previous mutinies against the Khedive, was disbanded and a new army organised along British lines (much like in India). With Egyptian finances stabilised by 1887, Baring also compelled the government in Cairo to abandon any pretension of reconquering the Sudan, which Egypt had lost control of following the Mahdist Rebellion. Careful –and often stingy– handling of the budget, plus promotion of irrigation projects, brought considerable economic prosperity to Egypt. Baring believed that at some point in the future, British control of Egypt would end, and full independence would be restored, but only once the Egyptian people learned proper self-governance. Al-Sayyid-Marsot contends that under Baring, Egyptian nationalists were inert and many Egyptians believed in Britain's policy of "rescue and retire", but that Baring had no intention of doing so as, al-Sayyid says, "Baring believed that 'subject races' were totally incapable of self-government, that they did not really need or want self-government, and that what they really needed was a 'full belly' policy which kept it quiescent and allowed the elite to make money and so cooperate with the occupying power."
In 1892, Tawfiq died and Abbas Hilmi II succeeded him. The young, ambitious khedive wanted to expel foreign influence and to that end encouraged a nationalist movement, but he had not reckoned with Baring, who quickly intimidated him into submission. Research, however, has shown that the Egyptian nationalist movement was active until the late 1890s, mainly from the secret societies surrounding the new Khedive. These were led by the young nationalist leader Mustafa Kamil and supported by foreign local elements, especially among the French and Greek communities of Egypt. Lord Cromer had a negative experience in India, where advanced education led to Indian nationalism that was highly critical of the Raj. In Egypt Cromer reduced the budget for education, closed many of the specialised postsecondary institutions, and refocused the curriculum on vocational topics. Tuition fees were imposed which reduced the availability for most Egyptians.