Economy,+Trade+&+Transportation+(2)

For centuries, man has been interested in how the Ancient Egyptians lived their lives. We can learn many things about Ancient Egypt’s economy, trade and transportation. The history of Egypt is very wealthy. We must learn all we can on how these unique people lived. Ancient Egypt had a very interesting empire.


 * The Ancient Egyptians had many social levels. These levels were shaped like a pyramid.** **At the top of the pyramid, was the upper class.** The upper class consisted of the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh’s royal family, police, judges, scribes, soldiers, priests, governmental officials, doctors, court officials, and tax collectors. The king was the dominant land holder along with the temples (religious leaders). While much of the royal wealth was spent on living in the heights of luxury, a high proportion went to financing the funerary structures of the royal family (the pyramids). **The Middle Class was the next social class.** It consisted of artists, architects, engineers, builders, sailors, craftsmen, dancers, acrobats, carpenters, potters, metal workers, tailors, shoe makers, boat builders, glass builders,embalmers, wig makers, and astronomers. **The most important class on the pyramid was the lower class.** It consisted of **farmers**, fishermen, **laborers**, servants, and **slaves**. These were the people who did the most work.

Many people in Ancient Egypt had hard, tiring jobs. The process of transforming cotton plants and flax into textiles was time-consuming and probably the bulk of the work done in poor Egyptian house holds. The male jobs consisted of police, judges, farmers, scribes, soldiers, priests, fisherman, government officials, doctors, artists, court officials, laborers, architects, engineers, tax collectors, servants, builders, sailors, craftsmen, dancers, acrobats, carpenters, potters, metal workers, tailors, shoe makers, boat builders, glass blowers embalmers, wig makers and astronomers. Young boys generally followed their father’s occupations. Boys who wanted to become doctors more than likely went to work with a doctor after finishing their basic schooling. Many parents placed their sons with master craftsmen who taught carpentry, pottery making or other skills. Girls, on the other hand, were trained for the roles of wife and mother. Mothers taught their young daughters to cook, sew and take care of the household.

Taxes and money were an important part of Egyptian life. The Pharaoh had the right to tax the population. Taxes were paid in goods or services to the state. Ancient Egyptians did not use money. "Stallholders weighed produce in cooper weights, called debens", and priced good accordingly. A goat worth one deben could be exchanged for vegetables weighing one deben. Sailors who worked on the large wooden trading vessels were paid with grain. When their ships docked, they were able to visit the dockside stalls and swap their grain for clothing, fresh fruit and vegetables.

Water transportation in ancient Egypt was done by boats and barges on the Nile river. **The Nile was the major transportation route in ancient Egypt.** The types of ships the Egyptians used were diverse. **The first Egyptian boats were made out of papyrus reeds.** They were powered by poles at first then were later powered by rowers and oars. About 3,000 B.C., they started to use wooden planks to build the ships. Two hundred years later, the Egyptians invented sails and began to rely on the wind for power. Land transportation, until the construction of the rail road, was what a human and animal could carry.

How did the people of ancient Egyptian’s trade? They sailed to lands bordering the Aegean, Mediterranean, and Red Seas. The Nile was Egypt’s highway for trade and the people acquired silver, horses, and cedar logs from Syria, Lebanon, and other areas of Southwestern Asia. Ivory, leopard skins, gold, cattle and spices came from Nubia. For these goods, they bartered gold, minerals, wheat, barley, papyrus sheets, and wine. The combination of a stable agriculture and easy transportation provided by the Nile made Egypt an important exporter of agricultural goods to the Mediterranean world. As Rome grew, it became more difficult to feed the population with local produce so the Romans turned to Egypt. Crops could be harvested in Egypt, shipped up the Nile and shipped throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Most of Rome ate bread that was made in Egypt. The Pharaohs had access to all the resources of the African interior through trade links with the princess of Nubia, who supplied gold, semi-precious stones, and exotic animals. They also exchanged cereals, textiles, paper, dried fish, beads, and luxury items for copper spices, ebony, ivory, and incense from foreign lands. Transportation was always a major concern back then since some goods would perish over the course of a long voyage.

Ancient Egypt's Economy, system of trade, and transportation were very successful. Social Levels, Jobs, Taxes and Money, Trade, and Transportation were very well managed. Historians today want to know more about all of these subjects. Ancient Egypt had a society much like today. People lived either in the Upper, Middle, or Lower class, mostly everyone had some sort of job, people paid taxes either in kind or with a product such as food, people used money called debens, ancient Egyptians got around either by the deserts or the Nile River, and people traded with others miles away with the help of the Nile River.



Bibliography Beitzed, Barney, Biblica the Bible Atlas. Hauppauge, NY: Global Book Publishing, 2006 Hart, George, Ancient Egypt. San Francisco, CA: Time-Life Books, 1995 Hart, George, Ancient Egypt. New York City, NY: Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc. 1990 “Egyptian Social Pyramid” Aldokkan. 11 Jan. 2012. http//www.Aldokkan.com/society/socialpyramid.htm “Ancient Egyptian Jobs” King-Tut. 10 Jan, 2012. [|http://www.King-Tut.org/uk/ancient-egyptian-jobs.htm] Ikram, Salima. “Trade and Transportation” World Book. 7 Jan, 2012. http://www.worldbookonline.com/student?article?id=ar1750608st=ancient+egypt
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