I like this subject. I love time traveling, by learning of the past and gaining awareness of another consciousness and experience of reality.
Here are some googled esplanations. I went on to google ancient Egyptian money, because I assumed they did not begin with money.
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Pyramids, Mummies & Daily Life
Daily Life: Food
We know what the Egyptians ate from pictures painted on tomb walls of food being prepared and eaten and from the remains of food left as offerings in tombs. Bread and beer were the main foods for many people in Egypt. Bread was made from a grain called emmer-wheat. As the wheat was ground into a flour, small bits of stone and sand often got mixed in and made the bread hard to chew. The teeth of many skeletons that remain from the time are worn down from eating the bread. Beer was made from a grain called barley. It was much thicker and more nutritious than the beer that is made now and was considered more of a food than a drink. Workers were paid with food rations. Emmer-wheat and barley were the most important items, but workers also received many of the vegetables that we eat today such as beans, onions, garlic, lettuce, and cucumbers. For all but the most wealthy Egyptians meat was a luxury that was only enjoyed at festivals and on special occasions. (Animals were also used as a source of fat and milk used in making cheeses.) The wealthy also drank wine made from grapes. The Egyptians used honey instead of sugar to make cakes and to sweeten beer.
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Ancient Egypt: Domestic Trade
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Barter
Trade was done by barter, a reasonably efficient method when mostly basic necessities were exchanged. Even after coined money was introduced in the second half of the first millennium BCE, barter continued to be widespread among the farming population for centuries.
Grain and oil often served as a kind of coinage [17]. This use of basic storable food stuffs had both advantages and drawbacks. If all one earned was expended on food anyway and there was practically no choice about the kind of food one could get, then eating one's wages was a system less cumbersome than being remunerated in specie and having to acquire the food afterwards. During famines which were quite frequent, one did not starve if one had savings; and many a peasant rose on the social ladder by exchanging hoarded corn for land during times of dearth.
On the other hand storing grain required facilities. Wastage because of groundwater, fire and pests such as rats and insects was high. Stores could not be hidden, neither from robbers nor from tax-collectors. Bulky commodities were more difficult to transport than precious metals. If your needs were out of the ordinary, you might have to use middlemen to get what you wanted. The question of measuring arose as well, as jars were not exactly of standardized size and weights and scales not easy to come by.
Then, as today, business went smoothly as long as there was goodwill and both parties were honest:
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Understanding bartaring and the conditions of landless city living, gives a different prespective doesn't it? Many people such as the Hebrews were nomads. Not all land is good farm land, and how might have people determined who owns land and who does not? No land means no food. It appears these people did not have the luxury of forrest full of game and rivers full of fish. Nomads were meat eaters, either following wild animals or herding. If only the wealthy ate meat, or the temples needed it for sacrafices, with whom would the Hebrews associate?
The Hebrews had traditions that kept them separate, so with whom would they not associate? Wow, you really stimulated my thinking. A big thank you.
