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Ž. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS Egypt in the fourth Milleniun B. C. was the granary of the civilized world. The peasantry was simple. It was
really free from the entire class of restri. Agriculture
ctions and interferences. It was not vexatiously interfered by the Governmet. It had freedom of choice with respect of crops and farming operations. The common people were mostly tied to the land which they tilled for their own living and for the maintenance of the State. We have no evidence what proportion the ordinary rent bore to the annual produce or profit, but it could not be high as the simple Egyptian peasant had to contribute only for the existence of only a few high intellectual leaders, who adjudged from the standard of their dress, lived wonderfully simple and unpretending.'
Egyptians were good and industrious peasants and employed improved methods of husbandry. Their natural intelligence was remarkable. as they were free tenants of their land. They had not to render forced labour. They grew variety of grains including wheat and barley and a big variety of vegetables. They employed elaborate system of canals, with embankments, sluices and flood-gates and constructed reservoirs for flood waters. Land was extensively reclaimed from marshes for cultivation. They had abundant surplus yields.
Sumerian reverine people were largely agriculturists. Land of each community belonged to the temple of deity, tilled on behalf of gods by tenants, share-croppers or day labourers under the superintendance of the priest in al-Ubaid times beyond 3000 B. C. They had a three-pronged land
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