MOHAMED TALAAT PASHA HARB
Talaat Harb Pasha is one of the great men in Egyptian history. He dedicated all of his life to set the Egyptian economy on the right track. He founded Bank Misr which was the first truly national bank in Egypt. Through Bank Misr, several successful industrial and commercial projects had been established. As a result of Mr. Harb initiatives and efforts, Egyptian industry was developed from being small scattered work shops to become giant industrial factories. Moreover, he was the first to use Arabic as the main language instead of English for all administrative transactions in bank Misr and in all other established financial affiliates.
Talaat Harb Pasha was born and raised in Kasr Elshok, Gamalia Distric which is in heart of Cairo. He started his education going to a special primary school known as “Kottab” where he learned reading and memorizing The Holy Quoran and the basics of Arabic language and mathematics. He continued his education in governmental schools up to the secondary school where he got his high school diploma in 1895. Then he joined the law school where he was graduated in 1899. On the same year he graduated, Mr. Harb had been employed as an accountant and translator at the Khedawia which is the district for administrating the agricultural affairs concerning the lands owned by the Khedowy, (Ruler of Egypt). During that period of Egypt history, Egypt was highly in debt to international financial institutes. Through his work, Mr. Harb was deeply engaged in investigating the Egyptian economy and then became able to define its main characteristics. Then, Mr. Harb was transferred to work for the Egyptian government at the law-issuing department. Working at that department, Mr. Harb became aware of the bad laws that caused the failure of Egyptian economy. Those laws were put and governed by the foreign lenders. At that time, Mr. Harb reached the conclusion that the only solution to save the Egyptian economy was to establish means to develop the Egyptian national production of various goods through establishing local resources to finance and administrate it in an independent way. Mr. Harb established an office for accounting and bookkeeping. In 1905, Mr. Harb was chosen to be the director of the Egyptian real estate company. Mr. Harb put a plan by which only Egyptians occupy all the administrative positions in the company. That plan is considered to be the first attempt in Egypt history to nationalize the Egyptian economy. In 1908, he established the financial cooperation company which had the function of carrying out small banking jobs. That company was designed to lend money to small factories and other small business projects. Mr. Harb believed that any economical reform should be based on protecting the national investor through establishing good laws that assist in easy financing from national resources. He also became aware of the need for marketing the Egyptian production as based on planning to enlarge the exporting process to Arab states. Mr. Harb also realized the importance of education to gain adequate knowledge of foreign technology in order to develop the Egyptian industry.
• 1920: Banque Misr; capital LE80,000[8]
• 1922: Misr Printing House; capital LE5,000
• 1923: The Egyptian Company for Paper Manufacture; capital LE30,000
• 1923: Misr Company for Cotton Ginning; capital LE30,000
• 1925: Misr Company for Acting and Cinema (Studio Misr); capital LE15,000[9]
• 1926: The Egyptian Real Estate Co.; capital LE116,000
• 1926: Egypt-France Bank; capital 5 million F. Francs
• 1927: Misr Weaving Co.; capital LE300,000
• 1927: Misr Fishery Co.; capital LE20,000
• 1927: Misr Silk Weaving Co.; capital LE10,000
• 1927: Misr Linen Co.; capital LE45,000
• 1929: Egypt-Syria Bank; capital one million Syrian Lira
• 1930: Misr Transport and Shipping Co.; capital LE160,000
• 1932: Egyptian Products Sale Co.; capital LE5,000
• 1932: Misr Air Co.; capital LE40,000
• 1934: Egypt Travel Co., capital LE7,000
• 1934: The Egyptian Company for Leather and Tanning
• 1935: Misr for Mines and Quarries Co.; capital LE40,000
• 1937: Misr for the Manufacture and Trade of Oil; capital LE30,000
• 1938: Misr al-Beida for Dyeing, in co-operation with Bradford, capital LE250,000
• 1940: Egypt Medical Pharmaceuticals, capital LE10,000
• 1907 Al-Ahly (The National) Sporting Club (by giving credit to the club foundation committee
Prof Eric Davis's Book “Challenging Colonialism: Bank Misr and Egyptian Industrialization, 1920-1941(Princeton, 1983) (Arabic translation: Institute for Arab Development, 1986), https://muse.jhu.edu/book/33535a