Accounting and redistribution: The palace and mortuary cult in the Middle Kingdom, ancient Egypt

Accounting Historians Journal, The,  Jun 2002  by Ezzamel, Mahmoud

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In addition to offering a means of coordinating and monitoring the redistributive patterns, the daily summary accounts may have played critical social roles. Thus, the detailed documentation supporting the accounts shows clearly the sources of supply of each commodity, which come under the entry `total revenue' (or better, total receipts), and the precise expected and actual contributions from each source. Bread, beer and vegetables were typically divided between (i) the Waret of the Head of the South, (ii) the Labor Bureau, and (iii) the Treasury (vegetables and Variegated bread, but not bread-inw). In contrast, dates and other commodities were provided, almost exclusively, by the Waret of the Head of the South [Spalinger, 1985a, p. 213]. Further, the calculations on the debit side of the daily summary accounts reveal yet another intricate pattern of supply: (a) in the case of vegetables the Palace received its supplies from the Waret of the Head of the South, whereas the Labor Bureau and the Treasury supplied the Palace dependants and the ordinary clients; and (b) no division of labor was apparent, however, in the case of beer and bread. The evidence also suggests that the State Workhouse, which operated apparently as a lending bank storing food items, held separate accounts for each of the above three Departments of the State: the Waret of the Head of the South, the Treasury, and the Labour Bureau [Spalinger, 1985a, p. 208]. Although the State Workhouse in general was a productive center in its own right, in the case of Papyrus Bulaq 18 it appears to have operated mainly as a transfer point, as an entrance to the Palace, and a conduit for the flow of commodities from the Waret of the Head of the South, the Labor Bureau and the Treasury to the Palace.

To a significant extent then the daily summary accounts, enshrined in their underlying calculus, performed several important roles. First, they established, reaffirmed, or reproduced a particular order of priority, so that on the debit side, for example, the Palace entry came first, followed by the Palace dependants, and then by ordinary clients. This order was strictly observed throughout the accounts. Through the prioritization of claims in this precise manner, the accounting practices reproduced and legitimized the social hierarchy of the Middle Kingdom. Secondly, the accounts reaffirmed the social strata and the very fabric of Egyptian society by linking sources of revenues (receipts) and provisions to specific institutions and class categories which reflected a large measure of dependency on the State and its administrative apparatus. This dependency can be taken to be the earthly manifestation of the spirit of Maat, not only in terms of securing social justice, but also maintaining overall order and equilibrium. Thirdly, the day summary accounts reinforced such dependency relationships through the determination of precise rations of provisions in a manner that emphasized the social and political status of the recipients.