The Grain Economy of Mamluk Egypt

Abstract

Scholarly studies of the economy of Egypt in the Middle Ages, from the Fdtimid through the Mamlik periods, have stressed two seemingly contradictory themes. On the one hand, the extraordinary involvement of the state in economic affairs is manifest. At different times, and in various ways, the ruling regimes of Egypt monopolized or strictly controlled certain primary or strategic products. Wood and metals, both domestic and imported, were strictly controlled to assure the availability of military supplies. Certain export products like natron were sometimes made state monopolies. So too products of unusual commercial importance were exploited, especially by the Mamliik Sultans, to gain monetary advantages. Sugar production, often in the hands of rulers and officials, was also, on occasion, a state monopoly. At another level, the state participated in economic activity it did not monopolize. Either the governing bureaus themselves, or elite members of the regime, were responsible for irrigation and other investments essential to agricultural productivity. In the trading sphere, though state-sponsored trading expeditions are unknown, state support for trade by treaty arrangements, by military and diplomatic protection, and direct participation in the form of investments placed with merchants were characteristic activities. How much of the capital of trade was booty or political capital we shall never know. In other spheres, state participation gave way to state controls for the purposes of taxation. Regulation of the movements of merchants, or the distribution of goods, facilitated taxation. For religious or moral reasons state controls also extended to the supervision, regulation, or prohibition of certain illicit trades. Finally, by a complex of controls, interventions, and regulations, the most important aspect of the Egyp-