CHAP. XI. ABUNDANCE OF THE CROPS. 23 



benefits on the peasant, in addition to the profits 

 which thence accrued to the state ; for Egypt was 

 a granary where, from the earliest times, all people 

 felt sure of finding a plenteous store of corn*; 

 and some idea, as I have already had occasion to 

 observe t, may be formed of the immense quantity 

 produced there, from the ch'cumstance of " seven 

 plenteous years " affording, from the superabun- 

 dance of the crops, a sufficiency of corn to supply 

 the whole population during seven years of dearth, 

 as well as " all countries '* which sent to Egypt 

 *' to buy " it, when Pharaoh by the advice of 

 Joseph t laid up the annual surplus for that pur- 

 pose. 



The right of exportation, and the sale of super- 

 fluous produce to foreigners, belonged exclusively 

 to the government, as is distinctly shown by the 

 sale of corn to the Israelites from the royal stores, 

 and the collection having been made by Pharaoh 

 only ; and it is probable that the landowners were 

 in the habit of selling to government whatever 

 quantity remained on hand, at the approach of each 

 successive harvest. Indeed, their frugal mode of 

 living enabled the peasants to dispose of nearly all 

 the wheat and barley their lands produced, and 

 they may frequently, as at the present day, have 

 been contented witli bread made of tlie Doura § 

 flour ; children, and even grown persons, according 

 to Diodorusll, often living on roots and esculent 



* Gen. xii. 1 1. and xlii. 2. f Vol. I. p. 23^. 



X Gen. xli. 29. cl sc(i. 



<j The IIolcus Sorghum. 



II Diodor. i. 80. 31-. and 43., and Ilerodot. ii. 92. 



C 1- 



