In 1865 de Lesseps, to show the progress that had been made, entertained over 1 oo delegates from chambers of commerce in different parts of the world, and conducted them over the works. In the following year the company, being in need of money, real ized io million francs by selling to the Egyptian Government the estate of El Wadi, which it had purchased from Said, and it also succeeded in arranging that the money due to it under the award of 1864 should be paid off by 1869 instead of 1879. Its financial resources still being insufficient, it obtained in 1867 permission to invite a loan of 1 oo million francs; but though the issue was offered at a heavy discount it was only fully taken up after the attractions of a lottery scheme had been added to it. Two years later the company got 3o million francs from the Egyptian Gov ernment in consideration of abandoning certain special rights and privileges that still belonged to it and of handing over various hospitals, workshops, buildings, etc., which it had established on the isthmus. The Government liquidated this debt, not by a money payment, but by agreeing to forego for 25 years the interest on the 176,002 shares it held in the company, which was thus enabled to raise a loan to the amount of the debt. Altogether, up to the end of the year (1869) in which the canal was sufficiently advanced to be opened for traffic, the accounts of the company showed a total expenditure of 432,807,882 francs, though the International Technical commission in 1856 had estimated the cost at only 200 millions for a canal of larger dimensions.
The formal opening of the canal was celebrated in Nov. 1869. On the 16th there was an inaugural ceremony at Port Said, and next day 68 vessels of various nation alities, headed by the "Aigle" with the empress Eugenie on board, began the passage, reaching Ismailia (Lake Timsa) the same day. On the 19th they continued their journey to the Bitter lakes, and on the 20th they arrived at Suez. Immediately afterwards regular traffic began. In 1870 the canal was used by nearly Soo vessels, but the receipts for the first two years of working were consider ably less than the expenses. The company failed to raise a loan of 20 million francs in 1871, and it was only saved from bank ruptcy by a rapid increase in its revenues.
The total length of the navigation from Port Said to Suez is room. The canal was originally constructed to have a depth of 8 metres with a bottom width of 2 2 metres, but it soon became evident that its dimensions must be enlarged. Certain improve ments in the channel were started in 1876, but a more extensive plan was adopted in 1885 as the result of the inquiries of an international commission which recommended that the depth should be increased first to 82 metres and finally to 9 metres, and that the width should be made on the straight parts a minimum of 65 metres between Port Said and the Bitter lakes, and of 75 metres between the Bitter lakes and Suez, increasing on curves to 8o metres. To pay for these works a loan of roo million francs was issued. In the early days of the canal, except in the Bitter lakes, vessels could pass each other only at a few crossing places or gares, which had a collective length of less than a mile but owing to the widenings that have been carried out, passing is now possible at any point over the greater part of the canal, one vessel stopping while the other proceeds on her way. From
March 1887 navigation by night was permitted to ships which were provided with electric search-lights. By these measures the average time of transit, which was about 36 hours in 1886, has been reduced by more than one-half in 1927 the average paSsage, including stoppages was only 15 hours 6 minutes. The maximum speed permitted in the canal itself is 12 kilometres an hour.
The dues which the canal company was authorized to charge by its concession of 1856 were ro francs a ton. In the first instance they were levied on the tonnage as shown by the papers on board each vessel, but from March 1872 they were charged on the gross register tonnage, computed according to the method of the British Merchant Shipping Act 1854. The result was that the shipowners had to pay more, and, objections being raised, the whole question of the method of charge was submitted to an international conference which met at Constantinople in 1873. It fixed the dues at ro francs per net register ton (English reckoning) with a surtax of 4 francs per ton, which, however, was to be reduced to 3 francs in the case of ships having on board papers showing their net tonnage calculated in the required man ner. It also decided that the surtax should be gradually diminished as the traffic increased, until in the year after the net tonnage passing through the canal reached 2,600,000 tons it should be abol ished. De Lesseps protested against this arrangement, but on the sultan threatening to enforce it, if necessary by armed interven tion, he gave in and brought the new tariff into operation in April 1874. By an arrangement with the canal company, signed in 1876, the British Government, which in 1875 by the purchase of the khedive's shares, had become a large shareholder, undertook nego tiations to secure that the successive reductions of the tariff should take effect on fixed dates, the sixth and last instalment of 5o centimes being removed in Jan. 1884, after which the maximum rate was to be ro francs per official net ton. But before this hap pened British shipowners had started a vigorous agitation against the rates, which they alleged to be excessive, and had even threat ened to construct a second canal. In consequence a meeting was arranged between them and representatives of the canal company in London in Nov. 1883, and it was agreed that in Jan. 1885 the dues should be reduced to
francs a ton, that subsequently they should be lowered on a sliding scale as the dividend increased, and that after the dividend reached 25% all the surplus profits should be applied in reducing the rates until they were lowered to 5 francs a ton. Under this arrangement they were fixed at 7i francs per ton at the beginning of 1906. In 1928, as from April r, the rates were reduced to 7 francs for loaded ships and 4.5o francs for ships in ballast, per Suez Canal net ton of roo cubic feet. For passengers the dues remain at ro francs a head, the figure at which they were originally fixed.