Even when you consider all of recorded history,
Egypt's political system in Cleopatra's time was pretty unusual. In this video I'm not
really that interested in talking about Pharaohs, or the royal court, or political intrigue.
That's a different discussion. What I want to get into today is Egypt's bureaucracy,
and how it functioned on a day to day basis. This is usually under-emphasized by historians,
but I find it utterly fascinating. Cleopatra's Egypt, and by that I mean Egypt
in the first century B.C.E., was pretty much a totalitarian state. I know that that's a
pretty crude way of putting it, but it's true. The level of bureaucratic control that the
government exerted over day to day life was extreme even by our standards. And by ancient
standards it was totally off the chart. Egypt's power didn't come from military might,
or from political cunning. Their power came from incredible wealth. The wealth, in turn,
came from agricultural production, which was the envy of the world, and tightly controlled
by the state. Almost all agricultural land in Egypt was royal land, and by that I mean
that it was personally owned by the Pharaohs. The ruler of Egypt, and through them the Egyptian
bureaucracy, had absolute control over this land, and through the land, the wealth of
the entire country. Let me give you some specific examples. Every
year, the Royal Agricultural... I don't know the word to use... "Ministry?", "Department?",
"Bureau?" Let's just say that the Royal Agricultural People™ provided farmers with the seeds
that they were supposed to plant for the season. Since it was royal land, the farmers had no
choice but to accept. At harvest time, they were required to return to the Royal Agricultural
People™ the exact same amount of seed they were given to start with, along with a substantial
cut of the crop yields, which served as their "rent" payment for that year. If you think
about it, they were basically just renting the seeds, too. If the farmer deviated from the state's agricultural
plan in any way, they were brought up on charges, and prosecuted as an oath breaker. In cases
like this a council of elders called a Kenbet would sit in judgment, and the punishment
would normally be something like a sizable fine. By the way, the Egyptian legal system was
much more flexible than the Roman one. The Romans prided themselves on their strict legalism.
The Egyptians prided themselves on their pragmatism, and their courts reflected this. What was
the point of punishing an oath breaker with corporal punishment, when all the government
wanted was to recoup their lost revenue. You see? Pragmatism. Believe it or not, that was just one small
aspect of Egyptian bureaucratic control. If a farmer wanted to do something simple like
cut down a tree that was in the way, they had to plead their case in front of the Royal
Agricultural People™. Think of it like municipal by-laws with the added bonus of literally
being afraid for your life and livelihood if you made an infraction. The fact that the
land personally belonged to the Pharaoh wasn't just a formality. It was law, and it was drilled
into the farmer's heads on a daily basis. The entire farming system was carefully designed
by royal officials to maximize both profits and crop yields. And they were incredibly
good at this. Another example: if you wanted to brew alcohol, you had to apply to the government
for a brewing license, and pay a small fee. This sounds familiar to us, but it was virtually
unheard of in the ancient world. Once you got that license, you were required to buy
barley from a state-owned company, which, on top of its arbitrary prices, which they
set, levied a hefty sales tax for its trouble. Once you brewed the beer, you were required
to sell it back to another state-owned company at, again, arbitrary prices. That company
then took that beer, turned around, and sold it for a profit. If it happened to be shipped
overseas, they took another hefty cut in the form of export duties. As you can see, the
government got like 5 or 6 bites at the pie before the product even got to market. This
kind of heavy taxation where the government was involved at each step in the supply chain
was present for many industries. People wouldn't see an system this again until the modern
age. In other aspects of life, state intrusiveness
reached levels that we would consider unthinkable. During harvest season, people needed permission
just to leave their farm or village. Freedom of movement was thrown out the window in the
name of profit and productivity. To be honest, this kind of reminds me of Tsarist Russia,
where people needed special royal permission just to move to another farm. And sometimes
that permission was denied. With Russia, historians had to invent the term Serf, because people
living under that regime were clearly seen as less than subjects but more than slaves.
The same kind of thing could be argued for ancient Egypt. Less than subjects, but more
than slaves. I don't think it's crazy to say that in many
ways the rulers of Egypt personally owned their own country. And, maybe, depending on
your point of view, the people in it. The entire state was basically designed from top
to bottom to maximize profits. This helps to explain why the Romans, who basically didn't
even have a bureaucracy, looked at Egyptians like they were from another planet. Before you click away, a brief message. I've been really hesitant to go down the Patreon
road because, frankly, I look around and almost without fail, the reward system everybody's
set up is embarrassing, and awful. There are lots of so-called "shout outs." Lots of "exclusive
access" to the stuff that is the digital equivalent of garbage. That all being said, I have an idea on how
to do it better. This is the system I've designed. You donate a dollar, you get a vote. Once a month I send out ballot to all donors
with every idea I have for a future video, and everybody gets to vote on them. Preferential
voting of course, I'm not a monster. After the voting is tallied, I have one month to
deliver a video on whatever historical topic the group decides. If you donate at a slightly higher level,
you get to submit ideas that will compete directly with mine on those monthly ballots. If your idea wins, tough luck for me, I have
to do it, even if I have to go and read a few books first. So that's the system. I set this all up through
Patreon. The link is patreon.com/historiacivilis, which is in the description. To me, getting
a tiny democratic process going is fun, and collaborative, and a little exciting. The
important thing is that it's the kind of experience I would want, if I were donating. So head on over to Patreon. I promise, we'll
have a good time.
Historia Civilis is such a great channel. If you haven't heard of him, he just "finished" a series on Julius Caesar's rise to power.