[Economics] Economy in ancient Egypt

[Mr.Jhorjan]

 

Link:https://datosmacro.expansion.com/paises/egipto

 

Antiquity
Agricultural production relied not only on fertilization due to silt from the annual Nile floods, but also on an important export, papyrus, a reed-like plant that grew in the delta's many marshes and was used to make writing materials. Egyptian mines in the mountains along the Red Sea (as well as in the Sinai Peninsula) produced gold and copper, the latter metal being made into bronzeware that was also exported. Due to the scarcity of forests, Egypt was forced to import timber from Phoenicia, especially cedars from port cities such as Tyre, where Egyptian linen of various colors was highly prized. Many Egyptian temples and monuments were built in Thebes with sandstone. Ordinary houses, and even palaces, were built of adobe (the material used for building construction). The obelisks, many statues, sarcophagi and the lining of some pyramids were carved in very hard rocks, such as granite from the Aswan quarries.

The model of socialism Egypt
From the mid-19th century until independence in the first third of the 20th century, Egypt had a typically colonial economy of integration and exploitation by Great Britain. It is in this period when the country integrates into the western economy through agricultural development. After the Second World War, the industrialization process led by the new Egyptian ruling class, landowners who wanted to invest in their country and British investors took place. As the process intensified, social differences widened and nationalist movements, headed by the Movement of Free Officers -Gamal Abdel Nasser in particular- put an end to the monarchy in 1952.

Start of economic liberalization
After Nasser's death, Anwar el-Sadat, after the failure of the Yom Kippur war, set himself the immediate objective of westernizing the economy and starting a liberalization process. This initiative was timid, because the Egyptians were used to obtaining basic products at affordable prices and the liberalization process generated excessive price increases. In 1977 the protests became widespread on the occasion of the spectacular rise in the price of wheat.

Anwar el-Sadat launches the Infitah (opening) policy which aims, by reducing the role of the State, to attract foreign investment and promote relations with the United States. A class of nouveau riche is developing rapidly. In 1975, there were more than 500 millionaires in Egypt, but more than 40% of the po[CENSORED]tion lived below the poverty line and slums were developing around the capital. Furthermore, the country racked up monumental debt during the Infitah years. To restructure it, the IMF called for the abolition of all subsidies to basic products, which led to riots in January 1977. The government involves the army, generating an unknown number of victims.2

The reorientation of the economy led Sadat to seek the support of traditional rural elites, whose influence had diminished under Nasserism. Farmers are evicted from disputed land. In the cities, to thwart Nasserian and Marxist organizations, Sadat has freed thousands of Islamist prisoners and granted them political freedoms. In 1972, the authorities had Islamist militants transported in state vehicles to violently regain control of the universities and arrested left-wing student leaders.2

Hosni Mubarak continues the policy of economic liberalization, in particular through the reduction of agricultural and consumer subsidies and the liberalization of prices. In 1992, he had the provisions governing land leases cancelled. Known as the "law to drive peasants off their land", this law, combined with other measures to separate the state from the economy, increases the discontent of poor rural po[CENSORED]tions, especially in Upper Egypt. 3