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Accounting for Private Estates and the Household in the Twentieth‐Century BC Middle Kingdom, Ancient Egypt

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  • Mahmoud Ezzamel

Abstract

This article examines the role of accounting in running the household economy and private estates in ancient Egypt. Drawing on translations of original accounts and business letters dating back to the Middle Kingdom, a number of diverse accounting roles are isolated. Firstly, the accounts and business letters shed interesting light on the determination of rations for individual members of the owner’s household during a period of hardship caused by high Nile inundation. Accounting calculations were an instrument of both planning the economy of the household and underpinning a specific pecking order of the relative standing of individual members of the household. Secondly, the accounts and business letters were used as a means of facilitating the ‘management at a distance’ of the affairs of the private estate, while the owner was absent having entrusted its day‐to‐day running to his agents. Not only were targets of performance set for the expected crop from the cultivation of the land owned, but also of land to be rented for cultivation. Finally, calculations were made to account for the manufacture of textiles from flax. The quantification produced by accounting calculations rendered the activities of human agents visible to the owner acting at a distance. Moreover, even when dealing with concrete, visible commodities, such as grain, the intervention of accounting sharpened this visibility by converting the concrete into an abstract theoretical value via the use of ‘monies of account’ to attain a measure of economic and social reciprocity.

Suggested Citation

  • Mahmoud Ezzamel, 2002. "Accounting for Private Estates and the Household in the Twentieth‐Century BC Middle Kingdom, Ancient Egypt," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 38(2), pages 235-262, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:38:y:2002:i:2:p:235-262
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6281.00107
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    Cited by:

    1. Mahmoud Ezzamel, 2005. "Accounting for the activities of funerary temples: the intertwining of the sacred and the profane," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 29-51.
    2. Mahmoud Ezzamel & Noel Hyndman & Åge Johnsen & Irvine Lapsley & June Pallot, 2007. "Experiencing institutionalization: the development of new budgets in the UK devolved bodies," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 11-40, March.
    3. Ezzamel, Mahmoud, 2009. "Order and accounting as a performative ritual: Evidence from ancient Egypt," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 348-380, April.
    4. Manzurul Alam & Zahirul Hoque, 2021. "Boundary management and accounting visibility in social services: a case study," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5377-5401, December.
    5. Jesús Damian Lopez Manjon, 2011. "The Role of Stakeholders in Accounting of Private Patrimonies The Management Of The Osuna Ducal Estate (1590-1633)," Working Papers 11.03, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Business Administration, revised Jul 2011.
    6. Murphy, Tim & O’Connell, Vincent & Ó hÓgartaigh, Ciarán, 2013. "Discourses surrounding the evolution of the IASB/FASB Conceptual Framework: What they reveal about the “living law” of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 72-91.
    7. Jordi Planas & Enric Saguer, 2005. "Accounting records of large rural estates and the dynamics of agriculture in Catalonia (Spain), 1850-1950," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 171-185.
    8. Kelum Jayasinghe & Danture Wickramasinghe, 2007. "Calculative practices in a total institution," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(3), pages 183-202, October.
    9. Salvador Carmona & Mahmoud Ezzamel, 2007. "Accounting and accountability in ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 20(1), pages 177-209, January.

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