The army occupied central stage among the Pasha’s numerous institutions and was the raison d’être of various other impressive institutions. For example, the many factories that were founded were intended mainly to produce commodities for the use of the army, which was their most important market. Similarly, most of the schools that were opened were aiming at graduating officers for the army. Likewise, the earliest modern hospitals to be built in Egypt were essentially military hospitals that were constructed near camps with high troop concentration. Moreover, the army, since it was a conscript army, changed the lives of thousands of Egyptians who were dragged into its service and radically changed the lives of their families who were often left behind trying to do their best after losing an important, if not also the primary, bread winner.

XREF: Connects to the earlier claims about cotton/state monopolies financing the army and the army changing peasant lives; this highlight shows the army as the organizing hub for other institutions, not just a consumer of them. Pays off: "Cotton cultivation and conscription together underpinned the Pasha's entire regime."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 75