The Egyptian merchants were the middle-class people of Egypt. Trade was done by barter, a reasonably efficient method when mostly basic necessities were exchanged. Even after coined money was introduced in the second half of the first millennium BCE, barter continued to be widespread among the farming population for centuries.

The percentage of products and even manufactured goods which reached markets was probably small. It may have been of marginal importance to the survival of the individual producer, but provided part of the economic base for the developing Egyptian high culture.

Various kinds of merchandise were there: vegetables, fish, sycamore figs, drinking cups, beverages, and cloth. The merchants generally crouch by their wares which were laid out in baskets.

Much of the trade beyond local exchanges is thought to have been in the hands of wholesale merchants acting for the crown or the great temple estates. The extent to which private individuals were involved in trading cannot be estimated. Market forces seem to have played a role above all during the periods when the administration broke down.

During the 2nd millennium BCE contact with foreign traders on Egyptian soil was probably mainly in the hands of wholesalers, people who had enough resources to make the foreigners’ venture worth their while. This role passed partly into the hands of foreigners themselves, who settled in Egypt, as the finding of great numbers of foreign weights at sites as early as the 12th dynasty indicate

Egyptian Merchants

International trade flourished in the King’s name. Egyptian merchants (actually, they were more like traders) carried products such as gold, papyrus made into writing paper or twisted into rope, linen cloth, and jewelry to other countries.

Sea-going vessels brought cedar, wine, and oils from Lebanon. Ivory, gold, ostrich feathers and eggs, animal skins, rare minerals, beautiful stone and many other luxury goods came from the south, from the nations of Yam and Iryet in present-day Sudan.

The cheapest and fastest way of transporting merchandise was by ship, despite the cataracts of the Nile and the storms on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and the difficulty and expense of keeping the canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea in good repair. Because of the limitations of the ships’ rigging which prevented them from sailing into the wind, the prevailing winds dictated the seasons when departure and return journeys took place.

The houses of the merchants had an entrance opening onto a workshop. Behind the workshop, there was a small living room with a fireplace and two tiny rooms. There were stairs up to the flat roof. People slept on the roof. Sewage had to be disposed of by each household in pits, in the river, or in the streets.