From Préaux to Property Rights: Changing Views of the Ptolemaic “Royal Economy”[De Préaux aux droits de propriété : nouvelles approches de l’ « économie royale » en Égypte lagide]

The historiography of fiscality in Ptolemaic Egypt is dominated by questions of state control, centralisation, dirigisme, and economic planning, often expressed in terms of the "royal economy". The idea of such a strictly supervised state economy is rooted in the still fundamental syntheses of the 1930s and 1940s. In the meantime, both the publication of new documents and the adoption of new theoretical frameworks have led scholars to challenge this concept. In this paper, the history of the dirigiste views and the recent developments eroding them are traced. Two core areas are singled out and treated in more detail: land tenure and taxation, and the so-called "royal monopolies". In addition, some reflections are offered on the concept of the "royal economy" itself, suggesting that there may be more useful ways to approach the Ptolemaic fiscal system.