Chromolithographed map of the Suez Canal published for the Campagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez on 1st January 1926. Topographic map of the Canal from Port Said in the Mediterranean Suez and Port Thewfik in the Red Sea including a profile of the seabed and a profile of all access and station points.
The Suez Company or Suez Canal Company, full initial name Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez (Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez), is sometimes colloquially referred to in French as Le Suez, was formed by Ferdinande de Lesseps in 1858 to build and operated the Egyptian granted concession of the Suez Canal. The Canal was opened to maritime traffic on the 17th November 1869.
The Canal cuts through the western Sinai Peninsula between the Mediterranean at Port Said and the Red Sea at Suez. The completion of the Canal allowed for significantly faster communication between European ports and the lucrative markets of Asia, as they nullified the need to round Africa.
Work began on April 25 1859, shortly after de Lesseps obtained the concession. Initially, French investors held half of the Company’s stock, with Egypt’s ruler Sa’id Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan holding most of the balance. De Lesseps created an international commission of 13 experts from 7 countries to construct the Canal. Much of the construction force was conscripted labour under the corvee system, which was common in Egypt until 1882, when it was outlawed. The British initially opposed the Canal out of fear it would disrupt English dominance of the Indian Ocean maritime trade, but in 1875, when Said Pasha’s successor, Isma’il Pasha ran into excessive debt, the British Government acquired 44% of the shares. In 1888, it was declared a neutral zone under British protection.
The Suez Company operated the canal until Egypt’s new president Gamal Abdel Nasser revoked its concession in 1956 and transferred canal operation to the state-owned Suez Canal Authority, precipitating the Suez Crisis. It is still run under Egyptian control.
Following the loss of the canal concession, the Suez Company received financial compensation from the Egyptian government, the final payment of which was made in 1962. The company used this resource to reinvent itself as a major investment and holding company in France. The company has since been nationalised and privatized and undergone several subsequent mergers, spin-offs, and restructurings that led to the creation of the energy company Engie and the water and waste-management utility also named Suez today.
