Pr Mswt Living Without Money 71496425

7/31/2019 Pr Mswt Living Without Money 71496425

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Have you evernoticed that,in all the

pictures of goldentreasures from ancient Egypt, you never see any coins?

We are so used to having coins and banknotes, which wecan exchange in shops for just about anything, that it isdifficult to imagine a society which did not use money. In

fact, until the Greekand Roman Periods,there were no coinscirculating in Egypt,

but clearly the people were still able to carry on their daily

lives, going to the marketplace to buy food and payingcraftsmen for other household goods. So what did theyuse in place of money?

PER MESUT: for younger readers

W M

An offering table with baskets and trays of fruit, loaves of bread andmeat, including an oven-ready duck or goose.

Painting from the tomb of Nebamun, British Museum.


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For shopping the Egyptians had a sophisticated form ofbartering or swapping of goods. If you had a good cropof radishes in your garden you could take them to themarket and offer to swap your surplus vegetables forsomething else that you needed. Perhaps you like the lookof the cheeses offered for sale by the goatherds wife. First

you would find out if she is willing to accept radishes inexchange for some cheese, then you would haggle until

you came to a price agreeable to both of you. The cheese-seller might choose not to keep the radishes but to usethem to pay for some loaves of bread from the bakersstall. Your vegetables might pass through several pairs ofhands before they actually got eaten!

If you needed something more expensive such as a newpair of sandals (see below) you would have to reach an

agreement with the shoemaker and perhaps put togethera collection of items to pay for them. This system workswell only as long as everyone has an understanding ofwhat everything is worth. This includes knowing howmuch a person should be paid for doing a particular job.

All Egyptians received pay for their work in the form offood, clothing and other essential goods. A large part ofanyones wages was paid in grain (see below), either wheat

or barley. A ration of grain could be turned into bread orbeer and the value of a loaf or a jar of beer was equal tothe amount of grain needed to make it. This gave a goodbasis for the exchange of goods as grain, or things madefrom grain, took the place of money. Soldiers, civil ser-

vants and the workmen who built the pyramids and theroyal tombs received daily rations of bread and beer. Theactual number of loaves and jars depended on the sol-

diers rank or the seniority of the workman. Often theration was far more than one man could possibly eat in aday so he could give some of it to his family or he could

choose not to claim all of his daily share but to leave somein the stores, like keeping it in a savings bank, to be usedlater (see above).

per mesut

Since grain was money, the granary where grain was storedwas like a bank. Scribes, like modern bank staff, kept careful

records of all deliveries and withdrawals.Tomb model, British Museum.

Live geese are carried in crates made from woven reeds.Tomb of Nebamun British Museum

Sacks of grain paid as taxes, are loaded on to a barge to betaken to the temple granaries.Tomb painting, Louvre, Paris.

Sandals shown among tomb goods ona painted wooden coffin. Louvre, Paris.


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Most everyday needs could be priced in terms of themeasure of grain known as a hekat. This was a basketwhich held about 4.7 litres, just over a gallon. One hekatwas equal to ten hin or jars, each hin being a bit less thana pint. Although the values varied over time a typical rateof exchange was 20 good white loaves for 1 hekat ofwheat. Here is a price list for some common items on anancient Egyptian shopping list. (hstands for hekat).

1 fat goose = 1 h 30 barley loaves = h1 jar of strong beer = h 1 round basket = 1 h3 bunches of onions = h 2 watermelons = h1 bowl of dates = 1 h 1 basket of figs = 2 h

More expensive items like cattle (see above) were valued

against a weight of metal known as a deben, (about 91g or3 oz), most commonly of copper. Very costly items werevalued in deben of silver or gold. Though the exchangerates were not constant, it seems that 1 deben of copperwas worth about 10 hekats of wheat, and 1 silver debencould be exchanged for between 60 and 100 deben of cop-per. The next list gives prices in copper deben (d).

1 sycamore log = 1 d 1 kid goat = 2 d1 jar of vegetable oil = d 1 milking goat = 4 d1 pair of leather sandals = 2 d 1 pig = 6 d1 ready-made tunic = 4 d1 length of good linen cloth = 8 d

One transaction recorded at Thebes lists the goods puttogether by a policeman to buy an ox valued at 50 d. Itincluded jars of fat and vegetable oil, linen cloth andscraps of copper, possibly from broken or worn tools andutensils. Another receipt from Deir el-Medina gives us anidea about the labour costs involved in making a bed. Thewood cost 3 dand the carpenter was paid 10 dto make thebed frame. The stringing of the cords to support the mat-tress cost 2 dwhile the decoration cost 3 d, a total of 18 d.Other sources show that a ready-made bed could costanything between 12 and 25 copper deben. The best qual-

ity woods and fancy inlaid decoration cost more thanplain acacia planks and white paint. You got what youpaid for!

Now you can see how good you would be at shopping,Egyptian-style.

1: First imagine your father is a reed-cutter. Reeds wereused for weaving into mats and baskets and for mak-ing lightweight furniture, like wickerwork. At themarketplace you find that one bundle of reedstogether with 30 barley loaves will buy two fat geese.How much is a bundle of reeds worth?

2: A fish-seller wants to buy some of your reeds. Howmany bundles will you give him for a jar of salted fishwhich he says is worth 4 hekatsof wheat?

3: Your mother has sent you to buy a bowl of dates and

a basket of figs. If you pay with two bundles of reeds,how many jars of strong beer will you need to makeup the price?

4: Now imagine you are a farmer. You want to buy afine new chair valued at 12 copper deben. The car-penter will take one milking goat and a pig but he

What can you buy with this log of wood?

How much is this bundle of reeds worth?

Cattle were large and expensive animals. One ox cost 50copper deben, or 500 hekatsacks of grain.

Tomb of Nebamun, British Museum.

per mesut


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wants the rest of the price in sycamore logs which hecan use to make more furniture. How many logs will

you have to pay him?

5: You also want to buy some new clothes, tunics for

yourself and your son and a length of cloth to makea new dress for your wife. You have a jar of ox fatworth 20 copper deben. Can you afford to buy a newpair of sandals as well?

You can find the answers to these problems in the boxbelow.

Hilary Wilson(All images in this article supplied by the author.)

Can you afford to buy these sandals?

This fine chair will cost 12 copper deben.

Answers:

1:2geeseareworth2h.Takehawayfromthisforthecostof30barleyloaves.Thisleaves1

h,thepriceofabundleofreeds.

2:3bundlesofreeds.

3:Dates+figs=1+2=3.2bundlesofreeds=3h.Thisleaveshwhichcanbe

madeupwith2jarsofbeer.

4:Goat+pig=4+6=10d.Youneed2dmore,thepriceof2sycamorelogs.

5:2tunics+1lengthoflinen=9+8=17.

Takethisfromthevalueoftheoxfattofindhowmuchyouhavestilltospend.20-17=2whichisexactlythecostofapairofsan-

dal.

per mesut


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Pr Mswt Living Without Money 71496425