What did Benjamin Disraeli did in the Suez canal?

Answer 1

When the Egyptian Khedive went bankrupt in 1875, Disraeli bought almost half of the total shares in the Suez Canal. It was not a majority interest, but for practical purchases, it was a controlling interest.

Answer 2

In 1875 the Khedive of Egypt had gone bankrupt and needed to sell shares in the Suez Canal (of whose traffic four-fifths was British) in order to gain money. Disraeli purchased 176,602 shares in the Canal in order to stop the imperial lifeline to India and Australia falling into French hands.[27] Disraeli persuaded Lionel de Rothschild to lend the British government the £4m needed to purchase the shares.[28] Because the Khedive had mortgaged the shares until 1894 the British government only received the mortgage payments of approximately £200,000 a year. However in 1895 the British government received a dividend of £690,000; in 1901 it was £880,000. The market value of the shares also rose: in 1898 they had risen from £4m to £24m and were rising at around £2m a year. By 1914 they were worth over £40m.[29]