Both men believed, and in this they were soon joined by Ponsonby, Palmerston's ambassador in Istanbul, that demanding that the terms of the treaty be applied to Egypt would weaken Mehmed Ali both politically (by treating his dominions as part of the Ottoman Empire) and economically (by drastically limiting his monopoly revenue). Both Britain and the Sultan would stand to benefit from this: Britain would benefit from a reduction in the Ottoman Empire's dependence on the Russian Tsar because of the lowered risk to its stability; the Sultan from the enforced withdrawal of the Pasha's troops from Syria due to the squeeze on his revenue. After lengthy and difficult negotiations the Balta Liman Treaty was signed which, while reducing the Sultan's own revenue was, Rasid thought, a fair price to be paid if the Empire was to be saved from Mehmed Ali's menace without being caught in the Russian trap.

XREF: Connects to earlier claims about the 1838 treaty dismantling Mehmed Ali's economy (loc 1565) and Palmerston's Ottoman-integrity policy (loc 1537). Pays off: "The 1838 treaty dismantled Mehmed Ali's economy to ruin his enterprise."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 1583