PRISTHOOD
The gods had to be propitiated by offerings and rituals celebrated by
great numbers of priests. To maintain this clerical establishment large
parts of Egypt were donated to the temples. By the New Kingdom they
appear to have owned as much as a third of the arable land and were
exempt from paying taxes. Even the people in their employment were protected
by law against impressment. This concentration of wealth may have contributed
to the decline of the state under the 20th dynasty.
COMMONERS
A major part of the levies imposed on the people was used to stabilise
society. A bureaucratic administration, at first native and in the Late
Period increasingly foreign, enforced order throughout the country during
most of its history. Three millennia of mainly quiet development point
to the success of this policy: Grain was stored which could be distributed
in times of famine. Corvée workers were fed from these stores
during the months of inundation when work in the fields was impossible.
Artisans constructing public buildings found employment, paid by the
royal treasury. Even the offerings at the temples were at least partially
used to feed the poor.
Of course, different classes of people benefitted to different
degrees, but care was taken not to leave too many people with nothing
to lose, a lesson the Spartans and the Romans for instance never learned.
While famines affected the poor much more than the rich, in normal times
there was not that much difference as regards health, survival of ones
children or even longevity.
Peasant villagers, on the whole the poorest segment of
the population, hardly ever travelled far and their knowledge of what
lay beyond their own community was limited. They came into contact with
low ranking scribes and overseers, who were not much better off than
they themselves. But by thrift and hard work they could hope to gain
additional property and rise on the social ladder.
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