Trade in ancient Egypt | The history of trade exchange, economic life and the Egyptian economy in the Pharaonic era
Trade in ancient Egypt | The history of trade exchange, economic life, and the Egyptian economy in the Pharaonic era. The facts of taxes, trade routes, land and sea transport, what are the means of transportation used by the ancient Egyptians, the pharaohs, and more secrets of the pharaonic civilization.
The position of the merchant, socially, was not great, especially in the era of the Old and Middle Kingdom; His role was specific, and farmers, manufacturers, and artisans often played the role of merchant. The public markets that appeared in cities and villages were individuals and groups of people who exchanged goods and products they produced, and there was no currency.
The general rule was that agricultural crops should be the basis on which the peasants exchanged with groups of artisans and craftsmen what they could produce of certain materials, wood, leather, or pottery.
The Nile and its boats were the route of internal trade; Large boats and ships contributed to the transportation of agricultural crops between cities, and various manufactures and minerals.
River navigation was the main means of internal trade in ancient Egypt, where foodstuffs, stones for building temples, and commercial goods were transported on boats made of papyrus, via the Nile River, which reached the country from north to south. The boats were also used in funeral processions to transport the mummy of Pharaoh to his burial place, and they also traveled across the Nile River.
The donkeys and oxen that pulled carts also contributed to the transportation of goods between cities.
Many pictures and inscriptions have appeared in the ancient monuments illustrating the internal trade operations of buying and selling through barter. From the era of the Old Kingdom, they appeared in the cemetery of Emery in Giza and the cemetery of (Ne Ankh Hanum) and (Khnumhotep) in an embassy, and from the cemetery (Ptah Sheps). In Abu Sabr and the cemetery (Kajmni) in Saqqara and others.
And from the era of the Middle Kingdom appeared in the cemetery (Har) in Al-Asasif. From the era of the New Kingdom, it appeared in the cemetery (Qun Amun) in the arm of Abu Naga al-Qibli, the cemetery of (Sa Wasir Ra) in the cemetery of Abu al-Naga al-Qibli, and the cemetery (Eboi) in Deir al-Madina, and others. It is from the late age of the cemetery (Mentou Em Hat) Al-Asasif.
Those who offered goods were the workers, artisans, peddlers, bartenders, barbers, or healers, while those who demanded goods were the peasants, women, and merchants. The commercial market activity was concentrated in markets, ports, houses and forts; Commodities are promoted by calling and shouting and by show and attraction.
The weights of goods were the weights of grains, foods and liquids, and there were effective penalties for those who tampered with the measures, and the system of payment or barter was done either directly or by paying an advance (deposit) or by deferred payment.
Taxes in the pharaonic era:
In ancient Egypt, taxes were collected by reviewing a survey of people's property, agricultural in particular, and the imports of individuals or institutions such as temples and land rent are not considered as taxes, and there are no taxes on those who work the land as serfs, but are taken from the owners of the land.
Taxes, according to Palermo Stone, started from the beginning of the dynasties and there were two conventions: census or census (Tnwrta) and the other is tax collectors (Smsw hr).
The first taxes were on gold mines and farms. Then, in the era of King Khafre, they included livestock and its name was the Ipt tax.
As for the tax on jobs and various professions, it was called the Seyt tax, and some clerks and judges compensated it with bribes and customs duties, so that their integrity would not be affected. It was mentioned only once in the internal port supplies in the era of the 19th Dynasty, and there is mention of customs duties on ships passing in the Kush trade.
Officials and the military were not exempt from taxes, the military were exempt from compulsory service. During the reign of Ramses II, the property of temples was exempted from paying taxes, as well as those working in them.
Compulsory services were performed by everyone for the royal palace and temples, and perhaps senior officials were exempted from them or paid in return for a sum or material consideration.
There were those who sometimes complained about taxes and came to know the court (compete) or sent to the minister directly, and there is no indication that penalties were offered to tax evaders. Those who did not pay the tax were beaten with sticks.
Taxes did not constitute a great resource for the treasury of the royal palace or the government, but were very insignificant in relation to the imports of state property. There were taxes collected from the people and placed in government tax funds along with their collection documents.
Trade in ancient Egypt and the ways of trade and transport in the Pharaonic era:
wild ways:
The wild hoops in Egypt varied according to the environment that they defined; Traveling through the desert was done by known desert roads, and the coastal and delta routes were also known. The words denoting the overland roads were (Ibt, Wat, Waton and Dat, Matn, Hammet), and the desert was called the Red Land.
The eastern desert roads from the Nile were characterized by the emergence of mountains, plateaus and valleys, and they are rich in various quarries (limestone, sandstone, quartzite, alabaster, and minerals such as gold, silver, lead and precious stones). From there ships bound for Puntland.
As for the Western Desert, it is flat and devoid of mountains and quarries, except for the Toshka quarry in its south, and there are oases inhabited by Bedouins.
As for the black land, it is the fertile land that accompanies the banks of the Nile and the delta, and it was named by this name because it is saturated with minerals that gave it a dark color and is called (kemt), from which came the name of Egypt (kabt). This land was the main transport land for peasants and merchants.
There were no smooth and regularly paved roads on these land roads; Its organization was a kind of absurdity in countries such as Egypt whose black wilderness is covered by floods for most of the year.
This is what Herodotus spoke of when he said, “When the Nile floods the country, only cities appear from the middle of the water, and they are like small islands in the Aegean Sea, and the rest of Egypt becomes a sea. And when this happens, the boats do not walk in the natural course of the river, but go along the plain and its breadth. The traveler from Naqrash heading towards Memphis passes exactly near the pyramids.
Waterways:
The Nile was the most important of all overland ways of navigation; It and its branches were the largest commercial and public transportation methods, and the most important words indicative of water transportation were (Majt, Murt, Marwat, Hart, Zinti for upstream transportation, Zady for upstream transportation).
Boats of all sizes were a means for people to move across the Nile between important cities and nearby areas, whether for public or commercial purposes.
As for the seas, the Mediterranean and the Red, they were mainly for foreign merchant fleets.
The Nile was a means of transporting stones, goods, statues and obelisks, and it was it that linked Egypt to Nubia and Sudan. The Red Sea was a means to communicate with Puntland and to reach the gold and turquoise mines in Sarabit al-Khadem and Wadi Maghara in the Sinai Peninsula.
Trade in ancient Egypt and means of transportation for the pharaohs:
Boats and ships: Small and light boats were in circulation in the Old Kingdom and could not accommodate more than two people. They were made by tying bundles of papyrus to each other with ropes.
The Egyptian peasants carried their oxen, goods and crops in slightly larger boats, which were driven by oars and used for hunting birds and fish.
“The bigger boats were used for longer distances, and when the waves were strong. It is closer to the ship that began to appear in the era of Naqada, before history.
These ships developed in their shapes, materials and sizes throughout the ancient Egyptian times, and were used for various purposes of transportation and communication, whether on the Nile River or the White and Red Bahrain, and their names varied, and some of them were used for more than one purpose at the same time.
For the purposes of river transport, there were 15 different types of ships, some of which were limited to light loads such as grain and plants, and some were dedicated to huge weights such as stones, livestock, and obelisks. For the purposes of sea transport and river cruises, there were 8 types for each purpose.
Animals: The importance of animals and their function in land transportation varied, as the donkey was the first means spread throughout Egypt, and horses came after them, especially in the era of the modern state, and it was dedicated to the elite and the ruling class in particular. Camels were used very rarely and were denied until late periods by the Assyrians when they occupied Egypt and were confined to the desert. Cows were used by farmers, in construction work, soldiers, and to pull carts for their sanctity.
Human: there were porters and servants for the work of transporting, and there were the bearers of rulers and kings for transport and their carriers.
Skis: They are machines without wheels, drawn by animals and used to transport huge weights in easy and well-known ways, and their name was (done) and they transported statues and boxes.
Chariots: We have talked about the royal chariots, and they were maddened by donkeys and horses, and they were called (Markabouti) and used for military transport, especially those with two wheels. On a limited scale, four-wheeled vehicles were used for road transport.
0 Comments