 Egypt was together with the American South one of the few places in the world suitable for growing cotton, a water-intensive and labor-intensive crop that was traditionally known as "white gold" owing to the high prices it fetched.World War II created a huge demand for cotton, and after the United States entered the war in late 1941, so many American men were called up for service with the armored forces that Egypt became the only source of cotton for the Allies.For those who owned farmland in Egypt on which cotton was grown, the Second World War was a time of prosperity as the high prices of cotton counteracted the effects of wartime inflation.