The Pharaoh Has Spoken!
You have decided to reward the merchants for their hard work. Due to the fact that they are brewers, builders, coppersmiths, doctors, goldsmiths, jewellers, metalworkers, paper makers, potters, sandal makers, stonemasons, weavers, wig makers, wood workers, artists, fishermen, incense roasters, priests and scribes; you believe that you would have been a fool to ignore the demands of this group of people.
But!
As a result of rewarding the merchants, your farm workers have become angry and refuse to work. If they do not work, the animals will die as they are not being cared for and the kingdom would not receive food such as wheat and barley, leeks and beans, figs and pomegranates, alcohol or the flax used to make linen! The merchants would not agree to work as farmers as they are of a higher social status and more people are needed to work the land than work in the town; so if you had rewarded the farmers there would have been enough people to grow crops and they would have happily worked in the town to earn more money until the merchants realized they were losing their income and began doing their jobs again.
If the farm workers keep protesting, they would miss the annual cycle where the flood waters receded and the time to begin farming! They need time to prepare the soil with a hoe and not disturb the rich silt left by the flood. They then need to plant the seeds into the soil using sheep and then cut the crops with a sickle during harvest time. If the farmers did not have enough time to do all this work, there would not be any food to give to the officials when they came around the collect half of what was grown each year and Egypt would not be able to trade food with other areas! The sheep, oxen, cattle, geese and goats would starve too!
As a result of rewarding the merchants, your farm workers have become angry and refuse to work. If they do not work, the animals will die as they are not being cared for and the kingdom would not receive food such as wheat and barley, leeks and beans, figs and pomegranates, alcohol or the flax used to make linen! The merchants would not agree to work as farmers as they are of a higher social status and more people are needed to work the land than work in the town; so if you had rewarded the farmers there would have been enough people to grow crops and they would have happily worked in the town to earn more money until the merchants realized they were losing their income and began doing their jobs again.
If the farm workers keep protesting, they would miss the annual cycle where the flood waters receded and the time to begin farming! They need time to prepare the soil with a hoe and not disturb the rich silt left by the flood. They then need to plant the seeds into the soil using sheep and then cut the crops with a sickle during harvest time. If the farmers did not have enough time to do all this work, there would not be any food to give to the officials when they came around the collect half of what was grown each year and Egypt would not be able to trade food with other areas! The sheep, oxen, cattle, geese and goats would starve too!
But thankfully the farmers have realized that if they do not work, they will starve as well! If they only grow enough food for themselves, officials would come and take it away from them! Even though they are discontent, a major crisis has been prevented.
Still, even though they may have a lower social status than the merchants, the role of the farmers in Ancient Egypt is more important. Maybe you should not underestimate the working class in the future...
Still, even though they may have a lower social status than the merchants, the role of the farmers in Ancient Egypt is more important. Maybe you should not underestimate the working class in the future...