Episode 11. The Foundations of Pharaonic Power Through Trade and Settlements

Unearth the secrets of a civilization that has captivated scholars and laymen alike; ancient Egypt's economy comes alive under the scrutiny of our latest episode. Prepare to be enthralled as we chart a course down the Nile, where the forces of trade, agriculture, and the enigmatic Earth's axial precession converge to shape the everyday lives and grand schemes of a society both self-reliant and outward-looking. We're not just talking about the pyramids here—this is a tale of obsidian trails and cultural tales from the pre-dynastic heartbeat of a burgeoning superpower.

Step back in time with us to the late Neolithic Faiyum culture and witness the pivotal transition from nomadic life to agricultural mastery, a move that propelled Egypt into dominance. We explore how the exchange of goods like Armenian obsidian spurred cultural evolution long before the written word took hold. The early Nile settlements offer a glimpse into the brewing civilization, as we unpack the layers of trade and cultural interplay that laid the foundation for the pharaohs and their towering monuments.

Concluding our historic odyssey, we cast a spotlight on the nuanced intricacies of ancient Egypt's economy that often slip past the shadows of its architectural wonders. From the minimalistic approach to money to the breakthroughs in shipbuilding and agriculture, we dissect the very fibers of a trade network that was pivotal to the Bronze Age. So join me, Mike D, in peeling back the layers of time on this journey through the economic veins of one of history's most illustrious civilizations. Our voyage through history is not just a lesson; it's an adventure that promises to reshape your understanding of the ancient world.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome Podcast Listener. I am Mike D and this is the History of Money, banking and Trade Podcast. My goal is to expand your knowledge of the history and evolution of trade, along with money, banking and credit, from the ancient civilizations all the way to the present. I truly hope you find these episodes to be informative and entertaining. Now, I'm not a historian but like Dan Cullin, I am a fan of history. So let's continue this journey together. We previously discussed the ancient Mesopotamian city-states and how they developed certain kind of trade techniques, along with really the evolution of money. Now we're going to take a step over to Africa and discuss ancient Egypt, and then eventually we'll even get into Nubia after the Egyptian up, and so it's done. But before I even start Egypt, I think the one thing you're going to notice with Egypt is they, along with the ancient Mesopotamian cities, really helped develop a lot of really stepping stones for modern humans in how we interact and even trade and develop agriculture. Now what you'll see is ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt did have a lot of cross knowledge shared with each other, but ancient Egypt really kind of diverged away from Mesopotamia when it comes to money. They didn't really have to worry about trade as much as ancient Mesopotamia because, remember, in ancient Mesopotamia they were resource poor. Egypt, on the other hand, really wasn't. They had a lot of natural resources. There were certain metals and minerals that they really didn't have much of a natural supply of but the fact is is they were very much self-sufficient, much more so than ancient Mesopotamia, and because of that, that really shaped and molded their society and the way they felt about themselves and how they felt even about outsiders and, more importantly, how they felt about trade.

Speaker 1: 2:07

The Earth's tilt gives us our seasons. When it's winter, the Earth's tilt is away from the sun. When it's summer, the Earth's tilt is towards the sun. The tilt itself isn't stable, believe it or not. In fact, it's wobbling. To give you an idea, think about a spinning top and the wobble that it makes when you spin it. This wobble the Earth makes is known as the axial procession. It takes the Earth's axis about 26,000 years to complete a circular wobble. To give you an idea what I'm talking about, we currently use Polaris as our Northstar because it's directly above the North Pole. However, as the axial procession takes place, polaris will no longer be above the North Pole. In another 13,000 years. The North Pole will point towards the new star, the star known as Vega. Now, I bring this up because this axial procession has a major effect on the planet Earth.

Speaker 1: 3:08

For example, around the time of Uruk and Ur, when they were booming and becoming cities early on, and when other cities in Sumer were growing, much of the area that we know as the Sahara Desert was actually a vast Greenland with lush vegetation and a large, diverse animal population that also had massive lakes and an abundance of rivers and fresh water sources. In other words, it was a place that civilizations could and did flourish. We know this because there are still paintings on rocks that still exist today that show pictures of vast animals that roam the area, with paintings of trees and other vegetation. Slowly, as this axial procession shifted, the climate changed, rain suddenly stopped and, of course, the rivers and the lakes dried up and the vast grasslands turned into a desert that slowly enlarged in all directions until it reached the point of the gigantic Sahara Desert that we know of today. The population that lived in this region had a choice to make, as the desert was slowly growing. They could either go North or they can go South.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Now, many that went to the South is what we call the Sub-Saharan Africans, but also the people that went North. They would have went Northeast and settled in the Nile Valley in modern Egypt and even Northern Nubia, as this was an area of the region in the Sahara Desert that had access to a consistent freshwater source. When these migrants made their way to the Nile Valley, they were not even close to being the first people in the region, as humans have pretty much always been there and they've always been drawn to the Nile. In fact, nomadic, modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile Valley around 120,000 years ago. When modern humans began to settle into semi-nomadic societies. They found the Nile Valley an ideal place to remain and farm, due to a steady source of water, since rivers overflowed its banks on an annual basis and deposited new layers of silt. The surrounding land was extremely fertile. The floods could be a gift from the gods, or it could also be a curse Too much flooding could wipe out a village, or too little could cause a famine. So, in other words, it had to be pretty much just right for human civilizations to thrive.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Egypt would eventually be separated into two different lands Upper and Lower Egypt. Now, this part is kind of confusing, if you've never heard this before because Lower Egypt was in the northern part of the Nile, because the Nile runs from the south to the north. So Upper Egypt would be to the south, near the Sahara, modern-day Sudan, to give you an idea. Now, this is something that always kind of confused me at first, because it's kind of the opposite when you look at a map, because you look at a map and you would kind of associate Upper Egypt with the Egypt territory near the Mediterranean, you would think Lower Egypt would be to the south when you get near Sudan. But it's the opposite. Because Upper Egypt is called Upper Egypt because in the south the land is a lot more hilly and a lot higher elevation. So that's why it's called that. Now, and also too, don't forget I said, the Nile runs from the south to the north, and the reason why is because in southern Egypt, sudan, places like that, they're mountainous regions and rivers flow according to gravity, so it's always going to flow from a high point to a low point. So that's why it is called Upper and Lower Egypt. During this episode I'll try not to say too much about Upper and Lower Egypt, but when I do I'll kind of remind you that Upper Egypt is to the south and Lower Egypt is to the north. So it doesn't confuse you because it confuses me sometimes, even to this day Now, since these two separate regions had significant differences as far as geography goes.

Speaker 1: 7:31

Egypt saw the birth of several different cultures within its modern borders, which would make sense because a developing culture would develop the way they do, based upon what is in the near region. So if you live in a desert area, you're going to have a certain culture versus if you live in a forest. It just kind of makes sense. According to the Egyptian myth, the Nile floods because Isid webtears the sorrow for her murder husband Osiris. But in reality, the flooding of the Nile is the end result of a yearly monsoon from May to August. Well, to the south of the region, this rain would have built up in the mountains far to the south, which eventually would have made its way to the Mediterranean.

Speaker 1: 8:20

The Nile originates from two main rivers in the south the white Nile, which begins in Uganda from Lake Victoria. Now Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake and is also the world's largest tropical lake. In addition, it's the world's second largest freshwater lake by surface area, after Lake Superior in North America, and the blue Nile, which that flows from Laetana in the Ethiopian highlands. The white in the blue Nile, converge in Sudan and flows northward to the Mediterranean to create the Nile River that we think of today. In addition, the Nile gets additional water from other rivers that also flowed into it. The Nile itself would have acted as a superhighway of the ancient world. We already discussed the flow direction from the south to the north, but also what's a great thing about the Nile is the winds blow from the north to the south, so the boat always has a natural propellant. It's amazing, it's perfect. Furthermore, boat building technology was sufficiently advanced by 7000 BCE, which allowed fishing and trade on the Nile to develop.

Speaker 1: 9:43

The Egyptian calendar was even based around the flooding of the Nile. It had three seasons Aqed, the flooding of the Nile, barret, when the fields were planted, and Shamu, when the crops were harvested. So that's the three seasons. You could say that early Egypt had a lot of similarities to that of early ancient Mesopotamian city-states prior to Sargon, local villages would have sprung up up and down the Nile River for centuries. Now these local villages really had the ability to disrupt and control the flow of the river, which would have affected those downstream.

Speaker 1: 10:25

In ancient Mesopotamia, people had concerns like that as well. People were afraid that people above them were going to disrupt the river and they were not going to get the correct amount of water flowing downstream, or they could have actually got too much flowing downstream. So you really had to have good relations with people that were upstream. For example, if there was a period of low inundation, which basically means low flooding, certain villages upstream could have taken too much water and you could have been left with very little, and this could have endangered the entire production process of the villagers downstream. On the flip side, when the Nile had too much flooding during periods of high inundation which is, like I said, it's a fancy word for flooding if the upstream villages fell to maintain and repair certain levees, this could have had serious consequences downstream, as the fields and villages could have been wiped out completely. So early on, when societies were much more fragmented prior to the unification of Egypt, there might not have been a strong incentive to look out for the villagers to the north, because they don't really have any kind of cultural significance to you. If you feel that there are completely different societies, well, you might not really worry too much about maintaining the levees because you already have enough to do or you might take too much water because you got to make sure you have enough water for yourself. There wasn't a heavy emphasis on looking out for people to the north of you. And remember, when I say north, we're talking about lower Egypt, because the river flowed from the south to the north, and when I say north, I'm also referring to downstream.

Speaker 1: 12:23

As I mentioned previously, the Sahara Desert was expanding and continued to expand, so this region was experiencing greater drought, thus a reduced water flow through the years due to lower inundation. Therefore, something needed to be done. A new class of people had emerged as a result of this that had developed a great skill of water engineering. These water engineers were able to develop a hydraulic system that ultimately increased the ability to control the flow of the Nile. These water engineers were probably the most important people in the society of Egypt. They eventually grew into very important professions and would have become independent of local tribes physically and even socially. They were able to somewhat solve the fragmentation problem, as they were able to supersede any particular region or tribes needs or abilities in favor of the common good. Now, since they were able to control the flow of the Nile much better. This had a attendant consequence, which was it meant that they could get more farm production and because of this, they were able to increase trade.

Speaker 1: 13:47

Since these engineers were in high demand and they had essentially unlocked a lot of the science and mysteries that surrounded the Nile River, they became increasingly wealthy and they were accorded high status as priests and eventually would be organized into a more central authority in Egypt. As their status grew, many would later become cult heroes. These priests and engineers were really separating themselves from the commoners from a wealth and status standpoint. This makes a lot of sense because ultimately, these people were extremely important and their ability to control the Nile really meant life or death for a lot of common people. So what ends up happening is very early on in the Egyptian history that we start to see a development of a wealth gap. However, it seems like the engineers were wanting to maintain an image that nothing had fundamentally changed and they wanted to maintain the myth that things were as they always have been. But the fact remains that these engineers slash priests had firmly entrenched themselves into the upper class of Egyptian society.

Speaker 1: 15:15

It is really not unlike what we think of when we look at these pastors and these megachurches. So they want people to believe that they're just like you and I. Yet they drive these for our reason, live in multi-million dollar mansions. So what happened in ancient Egypt is kind of similar what you would have seen today with these pastors at these megachurches. So from here, what I'm really trying to outline at the very beginning of this episode is really kind of give you a 30,000 foot view of the early developments of Egypt, because I didn't want to start at Dainese D Zero, because I felt that if we could take it back a little farther, we can potentially understand why Egypt kind of developed the way it developed and why its trade developed the way it developed. So I felt it was a good idea to kind of really start from well before Dainese D Zero, and hopefully you'll find this to be enjoyable and you can learn something new. I know I do.

Speaker 1: 16:15

Every time I set out to do these shows. I find they're very interesting and entertaining for my point of view. I hope that you feel the same way Now. Because of that, I want to really walk through Egypt's history and the one thing I struggle with is sometimes I tend to get off topic a little bit and I know that this is the history of trade and money and banking. So I don't like to go too far out of scope, but I tend to think that sometimes it helps because when you kind of get off topic it kind of really helps me at least understand why trade and money and banking had developed the way it did and also, to be quite honest with you, a lot of these ancient histories. I would hear certain names but I didn't really know how they got to that point. So I find, going back centuries or even a thousand years prior to an individual, it's really interesting to see how it got to that point. For example, cleopatra, the last Egyptian monarch A lot of people don't realize she was Greek, she wasn't even Egyptian, and when you kind of really go through the Egyptian society you can kind of really see how it ended up at that point. But like I said just now, I'm just getting off a topic and I apologize, but I really wanted to really stray into the early, early Egyptian periods so that ultimately we can kind of really better understand why Egypt became the way it became and ultimately why its trade ended up becoming the way it became.

Speaker 1: 17:58

It was during the late Neolithic period, from around 9000 BCE to 6000 BCE, that the Fiamma culture was developed in Egypt. It was around this time that Egyptians really began to resort to a semi settled lifestyle. As a reminder, the rise of agriculture occurred at various times around 10 to 11000 years ago in Mesopotamia and adjacent lands in the Near East. No one is 100% certain how early or from where the Egyptians learned to plant crops along with animal domestication, but the fact remains that the early Egyptians would have learned how to cultivate land and domesticate animals from outsiders, possibly from the Levant or elsewhere. And it shouldn't be surprised, because trade had already been occurring for thousands of years prior to the development of written language. So it would make sense that during certain trade expeditions or when you come into contact with others from foreign lands, which would have happened quite frequently, that new ideas would have been exchanged between different cultures and therefore it wouldn't be surprised that the early Egyptian cultures would have learned certain techniques from people in the Near East and the Levant.

Speaker 1: 19:24

So through the development of plant and animal domestication, certain small settlements would have started to appear in and around the Nile River, and these early settlements were very much not a year round type of living situation. They would have been a little bit more transitory in nature. So a lot of these would have been essentially kind of looked at as seasonal camps. The housing would have been not really permanent homes. They would have been made with simple reed huts. So we're not talking the Mesopotamian clay brick homes yet they were well off of that time. So essentially what I'm saying is these were not permanent settlement jets. These would have been more or less for people that weren't a hundred percent committed to farming full-time. So there would have been a kind of a mix between hunter-gatherers and farming communities.

Speaker 1: 20:26

Now, keep in mind, this period is poorly known and that would make a lot of sense because this is well before written language. So anything that we would know would have been discovered through archaeological digs, and that in itself takes a long time because you gotta take your time to bring up the stuff and then you got a catalog, everything and and it's just much harder to work with when you don't actually have written language. A lot of the original research dates back quite a while ago to the National Geographic Society's findings in 1925 by British archaeologists who uncovered a wood sickle with serrated flint blade and grain storage pits. We get the name of this period from the remains that were buried under the thick layer of sand at an oasis about 50 miles southwest of Memphis, or modern-day Cairo, which is located in a desert region called the Phayom. Basically, a branch of the Nile River had stilted up after millennia and diverted water to the area. The basin would have filled and because of that you would have had a natural water source, which would have attracted wildlife and would have encouraged plant growth, which then would have drew human beings to the area. So that's how the basic settlement was started. It was basically just started when the Nile River would have branched off into a, into a little basin.

Speaker 1: 21:58

So, even though we didn't know a ton about the time of the settlements, we do see shells from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea that were found deep into Egypt. Now, like I said, this is a time period from around $9,000 to $6,000 BCE. I bring that up because we also see obsidian that was used to make tools, and this obsidian most likely came from Armenia or beyond. So it's quite possible that Egypt was trading with people in and around the Black Sea and even possibly the Caspian Sea during this time period. This alone is kind of the reason why I wanted to bring up this time period during these discussions, because if we have trade that is occurring from the Caspian Sea, which is basically on the border of Iran and Russia, and it's making its way all the way down to central Egypt, you can see that trade must have been very important and very much needed and time periods that could have been 10,000 years ago. And once again, this is more proof that trade predates written language by thousands of years, considering that humans have been trading probably since day one, but writing didn't come until around 3000 BCE. As such, it's quite possible that this trade with the Levant and Mesopotamia and even the Iranians ultimately led to the knowledge that was transferred from the other people down to Egypt and then the Nubians on basically how to farm and how to domesticate animals. So you can really see from this time period that a lot of the building blocks had been kind of established for Egypt to grow into a regional superpower.

Speaker 1: 23:55

Now the next time period I wanted to talk about is the pre-dynastic period in Egypt. This would have been a time period from around 6000 BCE to about 4000 BCE. Now the first permanent settlement may have been a place known as Maremde Bani Salama. This settlement was in Lower Egypt, which is the northern part of Egypt, which is near the Mediterranean, if you recall. Now it appears that it was settled from around 5000 to 4200 BCE, so we're talking 800 years of a permanent settlement.

Speaker 1: 24:34

Archaeologists have noted that there was essentially three phases to this settlement. The first phase was the actual settlement of the region. Now it's quite possible that this region had been settled by semi-settled people from around 5000 BCE, so maybe they weren't necessarily full-time residents, maybe they were partly hunter-gatherers, partly farmers, but it appears that they weren't really fully settled in a permanent residency by this time. By phase two, the archaeologists noted that these settlements became bigger and more sturdier and certain storage facilities were created for wheat and barley and other crops for basically the next phase, which was phase three, where you start to see figurines being developed and they were sort of like what you would see in the Indus Valley near the border of India and Pakistan. But throughout the phase the development of agriculture was the main staple to keep the people in a more permanent settlements. Also, the people began to domesticate certain animals which was probably brought to them from the Levant and Mesopotamia, sort of like I had mentioned earlier. But in addition, the people did supplement their diet with certain meats, as people would have also hunted goats and pigs and even crocodiles and hippos, but since it was on the Nile, fishing would have also been another major food staple.

Speaker 1: 26:10

Now, bear in mind, most of the stuff I was referring to would have been in Lower Egypt, which would have been near the Mediterranean. So it was around 4,500 BCE that farming had moved south and was now in Upper Egypt, which is Southern Egypt, near modern-day Sudan. So, in other words, farming would have existed much longer in Lower Egypt, which would have been near the Mediterranean, versus in Upper Egypt, which is in Southern Egypt, near Sudan. So, in the grand scheme of things, by the pre-dynastic period in Egypt, which was from 6,000 BCE to 4,000 BCE, we really see Egypt as a whole being farmed, from the northern to the southern part of Egypt. So that really takes us to the next time period, which was the Elamari culture, which would have occurred around 4000 BCE. This was the time period that we saw a rise in more sophisticated homes, which were still kind of huts, but instead of being built purely out of reed, they were also mud plastered, which would indicate that there was a much more permanent residency. In addition, archaeologists have noted that they started to build underground chambers, which will be a very important part of pyramid technology. Down the road, we also see certain ceramics improve quite a bit as well.

Speaker 1: 27:41

Other cultures were also being developed around the same time in different parts of Egypt. The thing that archaeologists have noted is that all the cultures that were being developed around 4000 BCE had changed the way they buried the dead. Whereas previously they would be buried near their homes, but now there was dedicated cemeteries. All this will be very important because it starts to foreshadow later Egyptian culture and customs, which will eventually evolve into kind of a death economy where, when people would die, a whole entire service and economy would rise up and really consume a very high percentage of resources to cater to the death of a royal or an important person. And in reality, this is probably what Egypt will be known for more than anything else. And ultimately this was started in the Omari culture when they started building these underground chambers, because this would be a crucial part in the pyramid technology when they started building higher and bigger and more impressive.

Speaker 1: 28:52

The next time period would be the Madaic culture. This would have been from around 3900 to 3500 BCE Now, by the time we get to the Madaic culture. This is a time period when animal domestication was basically the norm throughout Egypt, with cattle, sheep, goats and pigs being the most common animals in the village, but, more importantly for this podcast, for the purposes of trade. One major step forward was the fact that the people of Nadi were one of the first known civilizations to have domesticated donkeys. If you recall from the Mesopotamian episodes, the donkey was a vital part of the overland trade. The donkey might be the biggest reason why they were active traders with people in the Levant during this time period, which is still 500-600 years from the time when Egypt is unified Now, some of the items that would have been traded were copper, some oils and resin, which would have been imported from the Levant. In addition, they were active traders with people to the south in what was known as Nubia.

Speaker 1: 30:02

Really, thereafter, around 3500 BCE, will be Nendocata culture. We start to see a shift, as the hunting of animals appears to be a lot less important to the daily activities, as the people really started to settle in and focus a lot more on agriculture. It is also around this time that people start to figure out how to use various irrigation techniques, which ultimately led to a spike in crop production. Because we start to see crop yields increase, it is no surprise that you see populations increase along with it. These small villages start to turn into bigger towns, which eventually turn into small cities. Therefore, one would expect that the houses would also see a change as well. Of course they did, because now it was a lot more permanently settled and these homes were no longer rebuilt with reeds, they were being built with sun-baked bricks. Some of the more wealthier families would have also built a home with a little courtyard, since crop yields were increasing and people were becoming a little bit more wealthy. This would have meant that when people died, their burial traditions would have started to evolve as well, because now that they had more wealth, they could build more ornate and expensive burial tombs. In addition, it was during this time period that we see the oldest Egyptian temple, which would have been in the city of Necan. So, in other words, what we see is we see the death industry start to evolve, and this would have been enhanced even further as the Nakata II culture had transitioned into the Nakata III culture. This would have also been kind of known as the proto-dynastic period or Dynasty Zero.

Speaker 1: 31:58

This is when trade with foreign nations really started to take off, and this was more or less due to two factors. For one, obviously, they were able to increase their crop yields. You increase crop yields, you increase the surplus, you have the surplus, you're going to trade the surplus. It's just common understanding of economics. The next part is the fact that they were able to improve their shipbuilding technology, so now they were able to build bigger and even more sturdier boats which would have allowed people to move up and down the Nile. But, more importantly, it would have allowed more goods to be able to move up and down the Nile. So you're able to move the goods south into Nubia and you can trade the Nubians. You can move it up north and then take overland donkeys and to the Levant. But the fact is, the shipbuilding ultimately was one of the biggest contributing factors to the fact that Egypt was able to increase the trade dramatically during this time period.

Speaker 1: 32:55

And also, too, let's not forget that it's during this time period that we move from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. So the natural evolution of tools would have changed from stone tools which would have been used in the Neolithic era, and then you would have copper tools and now we're moving to even stronger, sturdier bronze tools. So these bronze tools were obviously better than stone tools and they were obviously better than copper tools as well, and therefore these better tools meant you would have increased production, means more surplus. More surplus means more trade. So therefore the Bronze Age would have helped facilitate the increase in trade between Egypt and the Levant and Nubia and as far away as even Orion, but more importantly, also to actually increase the trade within the borders of Egypt itself. But this wasn't the only thing that was changing. We also see a shift in the artwork as it becomes much more sophisticated in and around an aisle during this time period.

Speaker 1: 34:00

Also, it is around this time that Egypt went from a highly fragmented society with each region having its own king, which I guess the way I see it and maybe I'm wrong is it's kind of how the Greeks were, where they were dominated by local city-states. So that's kind of how I see Egypt in the pre-unification era around this time period. Maybe I'm just totally misreading the situation, but that's just kind of how I see it at this point and, like I said, I'm not a historian, so I could be way off base on that. However, unlike the Greeks, the Egyptians were slowly being united to the point, whereas there was essentially just two kings, one in Lower Egypt and one in Upper Egypt. To give you a little background about Egypt, before unification, the rulers of Lower Egypt wore red crowns, while the rulers in Upper Egypt wore white crowns, and to give you an idea what they looked like, it appears that they look sort of like bowling pins is the best way to describe it. Now, it's quite obvious that before you got to just two kingdoms, there would have been a lot of local military campaigns that would have pitted one city-state or local warlord, however you want to look at it, versus another one, and eventually certain city-states would be conquered by another, and then another would be conquered by another and before you know it, you only have three city-states left in Upper Egypt.

Speaker 1: 35:33

And it was during these time periods, really known as the warring periods between the city-states, that the hieroglyphs were developed, hieroglyphs, translated to the word of God, which would have been developed during the early stages of the Nicotaphase. This form of writing wasn't like the writing that was developed in Sumer, when they had developed Kineiform writing, and, if you recall from my Sumer episode, kineiform writing was more or less created to help streamline business transactions and more or less create an early general ledger. Hieroglyphs were more likely to be used on decoration, on pottery. Therefore, you wouldn't have a case of a complete sentence that was developed because these hieroglyphs were not really trying to convey a certain sentence or message, like they were being in Sumer. However, luckily for us and really honestly for the world, the Rosetta Stone was found in 1799, which allowed Egyptologists and other scholars to decipher ancient Egyptian languages, along with other local region languages of writing. So therefore, if it wasn't for the Rosetta Stone, we would know a lot less than what we know now.

Speaker 1: 36:57

But we do know for sure that trade between Upper and Lower Egypt was flourishing, and also to within Upper and Lower Egypt there was certain trade districts that were even growing even more. Now, prior to unification, the long distance trade had already been well established with Mesopotamia and the Levant and even Anatolia, and also once Egypt would be fully unified, this would actually enhance trade even more, because now Egypt will have a strong central government which will ultimately act more like a strong CEO or board of directors, or however you want to look at it, but the fact is, as prior to unification was super fragmented. Now that you're going to get a stronger central government, you're going to get better economies of scale and therefore trade will actually be enhanced even further. And, of course, the thing about trade is it enhances a lot of other things, right, it enhances your ability to acquire new technologies and engineering. It will enhance your art as you learn new artistic techniques from other neighbors. It will allow you to import raw materials that you can make for finished goods, which will enhance the quality of life for people. So a lot of good things will come out of the unification, but we're not there yet, and with that I want to bring this episode to a close.

Speaker 1: 38:28

I really wanted to just discuss the Egyptian periods prior to unification. I wanted to give you an idea of what Egypt was like prior to the Egypt that we all kind of know, right? So a lot of the stuff that I talked about earlier really isn't in your high school textbooks and probably not in your college history class, unless you're a history major. But I thought it's important to really give you the background of Egypt leading up to the unification. I feel that it helps me at least understand how Egypt evolved and why it really became the way it became, because when you look at the older cultures that were established in Egypt, you can see how Egypt became very self-sufficient. You can see how there was the beginnings of the focus on the death culture, along with the death economy, and this will obviously really grow and enhance as the pharaohs start to gain more power, more wealth and more control of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 39:38

I want to thank you for taking your time to listen to this episode.

Speaker 1: 39:41

This first episode was more or less a overview of the I guess you could say prehistory of Egypt, and in the next episodes we'll start to get into Dynasty Zero and beyond and hopefully I can help paint a picture of how Egypt was basically run and operated with regards to money, banking and trade.

Speaker 1: 40:04

Now, what you're gonna notice is the money and banking side is a lot less prevalent than the trade side, and that will really ultimately come down to the fact that Egypt is very self-sufficient and they won't really feel the need to develop a monetary system, say, the way Mesopotamia did, because Mesopotamia really wasn't very self-sufficient, because they didn't have a lot of natural resources. So, with that being said, I'll talk to you soon and hopefully you enjoy this podcast. If you like what you hear and want to donate to the show, you can visit us at patreoncom slash history of money banking trade, or you can visit our website at moneybankingtradecom. Also, you can help to show out a ton by leaving a five-star review, along with telling anybody that you know that is a fan of history just like you, and I Thank you very much. Talk to you soon. However, the two amazing companies are that today,