ABSTRACT
From the earliest time it is probable that the irrigation Canals of Egypt were made and kept in repair by the forced unpaid labour of the people. Theoretically speaking there seems no great objection to this. The very life of the country depends on the maintenance of the means of irrigation. Until this century the land yielded only one crop a year which was sown as the Nile water receded in November, and which required little attention till it was reaped in April. The agricultural peasant had very little to do at other seasons. He could not be better employed than in clearing out the short canals leading to his fields, and mending the Nile embankments which defended him from inundation. It is unreasonable to suppose that the burden of the corvée was fairly apportioned, or that the rich ever took their just share with the poor, but as long as it was not very heavy there were worse evils in Egypt, and it might be easily borne.
