husbandmen.

The abundant supply of grain and other produce gave to Egypt
advantages which no other country possessed. Not only was her dense
population supplied with a profusion of the necessaries of life, but
the sale of the surplus conferred considerable benefits on the
peasant in addition to the profits which thence accrued to the state,
for Egypt was a granary, where, from the earliest times, all people
felt sure of finding a plenteous store of corn, and some idea may be
formed of the immense quantity produced there from the circumstance of
"seven plenteous years" affording, from the superabundance of the
crops, a sufficiency of corn to supply the whole population during
seven years of dearth, as well as "all countries" which sent to Egypt
"to buy" it, when Pharaoh, by the advice of Joseph, laid up the annual
surplus for that purpose.

The right of exportation, and the sale of superfluous produce to
foreigners, belonged exclusively to the government, as is distinctly
shown by the sale of corn to the Israelites from the royal stores, and
the collection having been made by Pharaoh only; and it is probable
that even the rich landowners were in the habit of selling to
government whatever quantity remained on hand at the approach of each
successive harvest, while the agricultural laborers, from their frugal
mode of living, required very little wheat and barley, and were
generally contented, as at the present day, with bread made of the
_Doora_ flour; children and even grown persons, according to Diodorus,
often living on roots and esculent herbs, as the papyrus, lotus, and
others, either raw, toasted, or boiled.

The government did not interfere directly with the peasants respecting
the nature of the produce they intended to cultivate; and the
vexations of later times were unknown under the Pharaohs. They were
thought to have the best opportunities of obtaining, from actual
observation, an accurate knowledge on all subjects connected with
husbandry, and, as Diodorus observes, "being from their infancy
brought up to agricultural pursuits, they far excelled the husbandmen
of other countries, and had become acquainted with the capabilities of
the land, the mode of irrigation, the exact season for sowing and
reaping, as well as all the most useful secrets connected with the
harvest, which they had derived from their ancestors, and had improved
by their own experience." "They rented," says the same historian, "the
arab