David Warburton
The Economy of pharaonic Egypt – unintended structural adjustment before IMF

At the end of the Bronze Age (ca 1200 BC), Egyptian officials were assigned land, the harvest of which was their salary and a portion of which was paid to the state as taxes. Other social classes were obliged to provide products to the state. Taxes were levied in "quotas" rather than as estimated proportions of the harvest or output. This encouraged production as over-production did not face discriminatory taxation. State income was sufficient to cover the needs of the temples and the court, but insufficient to be classified as a basis for "redistribution". Private citizens, foreigners and the state were all participants in market transactions, including commodity and labor markets. The state stimulated demand through taxation and increased employment through major projects. The system floundered after the Bronze Age.