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Merchant
The merchant begins his day in a mud brick house by the Nile. He wakes with his wife, and their little boy. He washes himself in the river, and shaves his face and cuts his hair short. His boy puts on a loincloth, and helps his wife prepare bread and dried dates for their morning meal.
The merchant puts on a simple wig made of human hair and vegetable fibers, and dresses in a plain linen kilt. Finally, he puts on make-up, and a pair of plain sandals.
The three eat together, and the merchant gathers pieces of ivory in a few baskets. He has recently returned from a trip to Nubia, and has to sell his goods at the market.
The young boy says to his father, "Can I come too?"
"No," says the mother. "Wait until you're older."
The merchant goes to the village market. In a large open square, men crouch with baskets of vegetables, fish, figs, cups, cloth of cedar, ebony wood, panther skins, and on special days giraffes, baboons, or lions. Many men wear pouches slung over their shoulders, and crowd around the venders. A woman looks at fruit, and holds a child by the hand.
The merchant finds a clear spot and sets down his baskets. Some men gather around him, and touch the ivory. One man says, "I'll give you a bag of grain and a piece of cedar for a piece of ivory." The merchant pauses, "How about 3 bags of grain and a piece of cedar?" The large man says, "Two bags of grain and a piece of cedar." "Done," says the merchant.
After some other exchanges, the merchant gets a cooked fish and dates from a vendor beside him for his main mid-day meal.
At the end of the day, the merchant has no more to trade, and returns home to his family. The merchant puts down his baskets and his wife and son are pleased with the things he brings home - grain, eggs, vegetables, fish, beer, linen, and bread.
The merchant asks his boy, "What did you learn today?"
"To kneed bread," says the boy. "Did you bring me something?"
The merchant smiles, and gives his a small clay doll.
Foreign trade created several wealthy periods in Ancient Egypt. Egyptian merchants often traveled to other countries to exchange gold, papyrus, linen cloth, and jewelry, for items like cedar, ebony wood, and panther skins. When they returned, they exchanged their goods to royalty or high officials for grain, or goods at local Egyptian markets. Other kinds of merchants such as farmers and fishermen traded some of their produce to local elite, and at local markets. While most of the customers at the markets were men, women were known to frequent markets and were sometimes merchants themselves.
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