Peasants and “Modern” Leasing Strategies in Ancient Egypt

Abstract

AbstractThis paper argues that continuity in the socio-economic history of Egypt from the pharaonic period to modern times is more than an ideological construct, and that the reality of that continuity provides a valuable caution against approaches which compartmentalise periods and stress history as a process of linear development. The paper focuses on issues of land tenure as evidence of the relationship between farmers, agricultural production and the market, and of the degree of political penetration of the rural economy. Data from the Graeco-Roman period, the Ottoman period, and modern Egypt are used as a basis for the assessment of the meagre relevant data from the pharaonic period.