Un(der)employment in Bronze Age Egypt

Anachronism or Insight

Bibliographic Data

ID12955849
AuthorsDavid A Warburton (Northeast Normal University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume12
Issue2
Pages137-258
Publication date2019-12-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Egyptian History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1874-1657 • E-ISSN: 1874-1665
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/18741665-12340052
OpenAlexW3081750117
LanguageDE
Citations received2
References cited29

Based on the productivity of ancient Egyptian agriculture, a discussion of economic theory, per capita GDP , economic growth, and agrarian economies through history, this paper tries to isolate the relative roles of land, labor, and grain in the economy of Ancient Egypt. There is little room for full employment in an agrarian economy; in Bronze Age Egypt the labor of a small fraction of the population would have sufficed to nourish all. Aside from services, an agrarian economy cannot expand employment much. Increasing productivity is counter-productive and none of the wealthy agrarian economies grew organically into an industrial economy. Govert van Driel pointed out that in agrarian ancient Mesopotamia there was no place for the market or silver, although both were present (as is claimed for Egypt). Overcapacity, trade, underemployment, and finance allow an understanding of the ancient economies, economics and economic growth; the impact of using modern economic thought based on production (and not economic behavior and activity) results in a flawed theory that must be revised

Agrarian society · Agrarian system · Agriculture · Archaeology · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Per capita · Population · Productivity · Sociology · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

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