Egyptian Civilization (Social Structure, Economic Structure, Governance, Book Keeping and Recording System)

Prepared by

A B M Abdullah ID-16010

Department of Accounting & Information Systems,

University of Dhaka

Date: 30/08/2013

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Introduction

Ancient Egyptian civilization thrived along the Nile River in northwestern Africa for more than 3000

years. It was the longest-lived civilization of the ancient world. This civilization coalesced around 3150

BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh. Geographically, the

term ancient Egypt indicates the territory where the ancient Egyptians lived in the valley and delta of the

Nile. Culturally, it refers to the ways ancient Egyptians spoke, worshiped, understood the nature of the

physical world, organized their government and related to non Egyptians. The main purpose of this paper

is to highlight the social, economic, governance and book keeping/recording systems of Egyptian

civilization.

Social Structure of Egyptian Civilization

The social structure of the Egyptian Civilization had different classes. Every class had its own status,

roles and positions. The classes in the Egyptian society at that time were:

Pharaohs: The pharaohs were the emperors in the Egyptian civilization. They had the superior authority

over the country and people. They were in the top position of the society.

Government officials, nobles and priests: The pharaohs used to employ different government officials to

perform administrative activities. Only the powerful nobles could become the government officials.

Priests used to perform the religious activities in the society. The government officials, nobles and priests

were in the second position of the social setting.

Soldiers: The soldiers used to fight against the foreign enemies and domestic rebels as per the decision

and order of the pharaohs. They were in the third position in the society.

Scribes: They had the exceptional qualities in the society. They could read and write. They were

employed to help the government officials in their works. The most important work of the scribes was to

keep government records. They had a very good position in the society because of their rare expertise. At

the same time their work had much value to the government.

Merchants: There were some people who used to produce goods and services in the society. People used

to buy goods and services from them. They were the merchants, for example- the craftsperson, artisans

and physicians etc. People in the society took many useful goods and services from the merchants.

Farmers: In that civilization farmers also existed. They used to cultivate the lands, grow crops and raise

the animals and so many productive works. They used to pay taxes to the government on their production.

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Sometimes the tax liabilities were very high and the farmers had to pay as much as 60% of their

productions.

Slaves and servants: At the lowest position of the society there were slaves and servants. Mainly the

people captured in wars and prisoners were made the slaves and servants in the society. They had to work

as per the requirement of the pharaohs and the nobles. Again some people of the society were forced to

work for the government.

In the society, the social classes were maintained very strictly. People could not move from one class to

another easily. But such movement was not impossible. Some farmers saved assets. They sent their

children to the priests, artisans and physicians to learn reading, writing, trading and crafting. In this case,

those farmer parents used to pay the priests, artisans and physicians from their savings. Those children

used to become the scribes, physicians or artisans after growing up. Thus similar types of social

movements were possible.

Economic Structure in the Egyptian Civilization

The portion of the economy of the Egyptian civilization was under the control of the government. But the

people sometimes used to enjoy a little freedom in making economic decisions, for example-government

usually did not tell the farmers what to grow and how to grow. Farmers used to grow as per what their

predecessors had done. The government used to assess the production of the farmers, collect taxes on the

production, stored and redistributed the collections. Storage and redistribution were locally done. After

paying taxes the households used to store residual quantity of production for future use or for barter in the

market.

They did not use any coinage system at the very beginning of the civilization but in the late periods they

used a money-barter system. In that money-barter system a standard sacks of grain and Deben (a weight

of 91 gram copper or silver) were used as the medium of exchange. Workers used to get their payment in

grain. A worker used to earn almost 5-7 sacks in a month. Prices were fixed for all the goods, for example

cloth cost 5 copper deben and cow cost 140 deben. The fixed prices were to be maintained all around the

country.

In the ancient Egyptian civilization, the main source of resources was agriculture. The lands were very

fertile. Farmers grew many crops, grains, vegetables, fruits etc. Farmers also reared pigs, goats, cows,

fowl and many other animals. Fishes from the Nile River were also caught. After deducting taxes, a part

of these products were sold in the market. The methods of cultivation were not efficient and the ways of

breeding livestock were unplanned.

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Manufacturing activities were also performed in the Egyptian civilization. Those manufacturing activities

were shared by men and women. Generally, men used to produce or collect the materials and women used

to process those materials. For example, men used to grow flax and women used to spin it into thread and

wove the linen. Women cleaned and dried fishes caught by men. Carpentries, bakeries and breweries were

also seen in the towns. These were run and financially supported by rich nobles.

In the Egyptian civilization, there were some materials which were mined, for example- copper, bronze,

iron, gems etc. But those materials were very expensive and under the possession of a few wealthy

people. General people of the civilization used tools made from woods and stones. In manufacturing and

mining activities, mainly human labor was used. An animal was used to plough lands, carry goods and to

perform other heavy works.

Different types of natural energies were used by the people of that civilization. Wind energy, heat of the

sun and fire were very useful to people. Wind energy was used in sailing ships and boats. Fire was used to

cook and bake foods, smelt and cast metals, make glasses, burn pottery and to make bricks. The heat of

the sun was used to dry foods and fishes and to make mud bricks.

Government revenue mainly came from the taxation and taxes were mainly levied on grains. Ancient

Egypt was one of the most heavily taxed nations in the world. Labor of the slaves was also a source of

government revenue. Sometimes successful military ventures provided the government with much wealth

and revenue.

Government used much of the revenues to stabilize the society. Grains kept in the stores could be

distributed in times of famine. Artisans were paid from the government treasury for constructing public

buildings. The poor people were fed from the offerings at the temples. A large portion of government

income was given to the military because during the times of unrests, government needed military help.

The government officials were also beneficiaries of royal munificence.

The farmers living in the village areas were the poorest segment of the population. They hardly travelled

far from their living area. As a result, their knowledge about their country was very low. They came into

contact with scribes and overseers who also had limited knowledge. In such a situation, it was very hard

for that poorest segment to improve their financial condition.

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Governance in Egyptian civilization

In the early Egyptian civilization, the government activities were directed by a single man called the

pharaoh. That man was the all in all in the country. He had the supreme authority over the country and

people. People believed that the pharaoh was more than a man. People also believed that the pharaoh was

a god. These types of beliefs of the people gave the pharaoh an absolute control over the affairs of the

country.

The government activities of that civilization were mainly controlled by the clergy. The pharaoh had

some advisors and ministers. Most of them were priests. Only they were thought to be capable and worthy

of performing the god-king’s orders. In fact priests at that time had special status over the common people

in the country.

There was a bureaucratic administration under the pharaoh. He had some high government officials, for

example- the vizier (prime minister), the chief treasurer, the tax collector, the minister of public works

and the army commander. These officials were directly accountable to the pharaoh. Among these high

officials the vizier or the prime minister acted as the representative of the pharaoh.

There were regional administrations also. The whole country was divided into 42 regional administration

called nomes, each controlled by a nomarch who was directly accountable to the vizier. Generally the

pharaoh appointed the nomarchs. The temples were very important in administrative activities. They were

used for prayers and at the same time they were also used for collecting, storing and redistributing grain

and goods. The redistribution works were done by the administrative overseers.

Taxes were generally paid in goods and labor. People were drafted into the army and forced to work for a

certain period to pay the corvee (labor tax). The slaves and mercenaries were used in the army. But the

slaves were not used to build any sacred monuments, such as the Pyramids. The workers received proper

Egyptian burials but the slaves did not. The majority of the Egyptian people were farmers who worked on

the lands around the Nile River. These people had to accept and obey all the decisions and orders of their

government in accordance with their religion.

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Book keeping and recording system in ancient Egyptian civilization

The regional areas or nomes in ancient Egyptian civilization had storehouses and these storehouses were

the main centers of record keeping. These storehouses were also the treasuries and contained different

types of wealth. In each storehouse there was treasurer who acted as the in charge. He was required to

furnish a report each to the vizier (prime minister) regarding the position of the treasury. The vizier in

turn was required to report monthly to the pharaoh the status of the treasury.

The book keepers who kept records in the storehouses kept meticulous records which were checked by an

elaborate internal verification system. There was one type of scribes who recorded the quantity of the

goods brought into the storehouse. There was another type of scribes who recorded the outward

movement of goods from the storehouse. There was also a third set of scribes who worked like the

auditors. This third type of scribes checked the goods remaining in the storehouse with the other records.

The book keepers in the storehouse required to be very honest and accurate because irregularities

disclosed by royal audits were punishable by fine, mutilation or death. The book keeping system was very

important in the ancient Egyptian civilization but it was limited to list making only. The main objective of

book keeping system was to ensure that the government was not being cheated by the transactions that

were carried on.

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References

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The ancient Egyptian economy. [Online]. (URL http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/economy/).

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