Agriculture created most of Egypt’s wealth. Grain, vegetables, fruit, cattle, goats, pigs and fowl were grown, and fish from the Nile were caught, and eventual surpluses, after deduction of the various taxes, were sold on the markets. Thanks to the yearly inundations the soil remained fertile. But agricultural techniques were not very efficient. Improvements were rare, implements remained primitive and the breeding of better livestock was haphazard. Pisciculture appears to have existed on a very small scale. But practically all the fish consumed were caught in the Nile. Hunting, a leisure activity to the rich, and gathering played a small economic role over all, but may have been crucial to the survival of the poorest.
Manufacture
A large part of the manufactured goods came from the families which produced the raw materials. Labour was divided according to gender, with the processing generally left to the women. While the men grew flax, their women spun it into thread and wove the linen. A sizable proportion of the grain produced was used for beer production. The fish caught by the men had to be cleaned and dried, which was generally done by women, to be of much use in the hot climate of Egypt, unless they were consumed immediately.
In the towns small factories appeared, often financed by rich noblemen: bakeries, breweries, carpentry workshops and the like with a few dozen employees. In these manufactories weaving, for instance, became a largely male occupation with the introduction of upright looms during the New Kingdom.
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Mining
Most of the things mined were of little interest to anyone but a small number of rich people. Precious metals were not in general circulation until the Late Period and even then remained in the hands of few. The metals used for tools – copper, bronze and, from the Late Period onwards, iron – were expensive and the implements fashioned from them were beyond the reach of many. Poorer people continued to use stone and wooden tools for most purposes well into the Bronze and even beyond into the Iron Age. Gems too remained in the possession of a wealthy minority and the stone quarried for temples and tombs served the same class of people and profitted only the craftsmen involved in building.
Natron needed for the embalming process, was mined in the Wadi Natrun. Embalming was too expensive for all but a few.
Commerce and banking
Egypt, Retenu and Nubia: Major trade routes
Most of the produce was consumed by the producers themselves. What was left after landlords and tax-collectors had taken their share, could be sold by barter on the free market either directly to consumers or to professional traders. Little is known about these merchants. It is generally assumed that they were, at least until the Late Period, for the most part agents of the crown or the great estates.
Some of the wheat harvested and belonging to private owners was stored in state warehouses. So was much of the grain collected as taxes. Written withdrawal orders by owners of lots of grain were used as a kind of currency. These grain banks continued to serve growers and traders even after the introduction of coined money in the latter half of the first millennium BCE. Under the Ptolemies a central bank at Alexandria recorded all accounts of the granary banks dotting the country. Payments were transferred from account to account similar to the modern giro system. Credit entries were recorded with the owners name being in the genitive or possessive case and debit entries in the dative case.
Since the second half of the first millennium BCE gold, silver, and copper in specie were used mostly in dealings with foreigners, be they mercenaries or merchants.
High interest rates did not encourage commerce and during the first millennium BCE they may well have put Egyptian merchants at a disadvantage vis-a-vis foreign traders who were funded from abroad. During the Saite Period monthly interest rates could reach 10%
Energy
The main energy source of ancient times was muscle power provided to a large extent by humans, but domesticated animals played an important role. The animals used in agriculture were donkeys for transporting produce and cattle for ploughing and other heavy work. Harnessing was inefficient. The yoke resting on the animals’ shoulders was unknown, and the shafts of the ploughs were fastened to the horns of the cows.
Horses were introduced into Egypt during the Second Intermediary Period and never achieved economic importance. Expensive to keep, they were only employed by the aristocracy and the military for pulling chariots and later for riding. Vehicles with light spoked wheels came into use during the New Kingdom and served mostly for warfare and sport. Anything transported by land, even in arid desert regions, was either carried by humans or donkeys, or dragged on wooden sledges.
Laden donkeys
Source: Lionel Casson, Ancient Egypt – Time-Life Books
