3-021-548 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Isthmus of Suez Maritime Canal [in Egypt]: labourers removing earth, 1869. Workers on that '...great enterprise which now approaches its completion, the Maritime Canal through the Isthmus of Suez, to connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea...their wages are by piece-work, averaging 1s. 6d. or 2s. a day, the company finding [ie providing] tools'. In 2017, 1 shilling and sixpence was the equivalent to about £4.70. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.