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War_Hymn t1_j3ir661 wrote

Reply to comment by megamindwriter in When did government departments and government budgets become invented? by megamindwriter

There are archeological records of state revenue and expense going back to clay cuineform tablets of the early Sumerian city-states 4000-5000 years ago.

I feel you might have some misconception about how ancient governments work...it wasn't as simple as some king or duke sitting on his throne and handing out a handful of silver or gold whenever something needs to be paid for.

By the late bronze age, there were highly developed states like Egypt or Zhou China that had an extensive and sophisticated bureaucracies in place to manage state affairs and track money coming in and out. Middle/Late Kingdom Egypt alone had a population of 2-3 million people - trying to govern this much people without keeping records or delegating to departments would had been very difficult.

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megamindwriter OP t1_j3j8hmn wrote

Yes, I did have misconceptions. Thanks for the answer.

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basementthought t1_j3l6cdd wrote

One interesting related fact is that most early writing is not stories or personal letters but records. We initially used writing to keep track of finances trade and laws. It took some time for people to start writing literature down

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YourOverlords t1_j3oyb9t wrote

I think the medieval period was the rebuilding of western civilization following the the fall of Rome in 476. With the typical idea of it being the so called "dark ages", it's a fair cop to think like that.

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