The Ancient Egyptian Economy 3000}}}30 BCE [Hardcover]

The first economic history of ancient Egypt employing a New Institutional Economics approach and covering the entire pharaonic period, 300030 BCE.This book examines the economic history of ancient Egypt through the entire pharaonic period, 300030 BCE, using current economic theories and models. It argues that the increased use of writing and silver money were important factors in the evolution of the ancient Egyptian economy.This book examines the economic history of ancient Egypt through the entire pharaonic period, 300030 BCE, using current economic theories and models. It argues that the increased use of writing and silver money were important factors in the evolution of the ancient Egyptian economy.This book is the first economic history of ancient Egypt covering the entire pharaonic period, 300030 BCE, and employing a New Institutional Economics approach. It argues that the ancient Egyptian state encouraged an increasingly widespread and sophisticated use of writing through time, primarily in order to better document and more efficiently exact taxes for redistribution. The increased use of writing, however, also resulted in increased documentation and enforcement of private property titles and transfers, gradually lowering their transaction costs relative to redistribution. The book also argues that the increasing use of silver as a unified measure of value, medium of exchange, and store of wealth also lowered transaction costs for high value exchanges. The increasing use of silver in turn allowed the state to exact transfer taxes in silver, providing it with an economic incentive to further document and enforce private property titles and transfers.Introduction; 1. The Early Dynastic Period (c.30002686 BCE); 2. The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period (c.26862025 BCE); 3. The Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period (c.20251550 BCE; 4. The New Kingdom (c.15501069 BCE); 5. The Third Intermediate Period (c.1069664 BCE); 6. The Saite and PersialSJ