The figure of Joseph from the Book of Genesis - from economic point of view

I would like to ask you to have a look closer on the figure of Joseph, whom the envious brothers sold in captivity and who went to Egypt. There, he impressed to pharaoh when he expained dream about 7 cows. Thanks to this Joseph became his first minister. As we remember, seven fat cows appeared in the dream of the pharaoh. They were devoured by seven lean cows.

Joseph explained to Pharaoh that after seven years of harvest, seven years of crop failure would occur and the whole country should have to be prepared for it. It was written:

(Book of Genesis 41.34.)
"34 Let the Pharaoh appoint the commissioners for the fifth year of abundance.
35 They should collect all the food in Pharaoh. They should be kept in the cities for food.
36 This is a must have for the country, it is not possible to be in the country.
37 The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.
38 So Pharaoh. Ask them, "Can we find somebody who is the spirit of God?"
39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made it known to you, it is so discerning and wise as you.
40 You are in my hands and I have to pay for your orders. Only with respect to throne will I be greater than you. "

As we can see, Józef's program started with the establishment of an additional tax. Very high income tax, covering up to 20 percent of the harvest. We can imagine that it was additional tax, because in the Egyptian state there had to be other taxes. Assuming that the administration of this tax and its collection took place reliably, it was necessary to employ many officials for this purpose, who controlled the collections at each farm and then taxed them. Of course money which officials had to earn, were taken also from those taxes.. Therefore, a side effect of this program was that cost of functioning of the state increased.

Additionally, I assume that every taxpayer supplied grain at his own expense, which of course raised the tax, slightly, nevertheless. Significantly higher costs were associated with the need to build warehouses that could accommodate the grain delivered under this tax, and barracks for the army, which these warehouses looked after. There must have been a lot of such warehouses at the same time in the whole area of ​​the state, because it is difficult to imagine that the peasants would bring grain to large distances. This means that a significant part of the population was involved in the implementation of the construction program, which was another side consequence of interventionist policy of Józef. Similarly, a significant part of the train animals was pulled out of agriculture. Bearing in mind that the then Egyptian agriculture required constant work on irrigation, the distraction of people and animals on the construction site had to be catastrophically effected by irrigation works. In this situation, it is highly probable that high, 20% grain tax, as well as taxes in the form of free labor of people and draft animals, in 7 years led to a sharp crisis in agriculture, which resulted in a decrease in yields and famine. It seems, therefore, that famine was simply the result of Joseph's interventionist program.

The coming of famine opened a new stage of Joseph's program.

(Book of Genesis 41.56.)
"56 When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt."
So we see that Joseph was SELLING this grain. This leads us to suspect that the famine in Egypt was consciously calculated by this man as an element of economic coercion to carry out a program of ownership transformation. For behold, what was soon revealed:
(Book of Genesis 47.13.)
"13 There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine.
14 Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace."

It seems, therefore, that the first minister acted in collusion with his pharaoh, who from the very beginning was introduced to the details of the project and therefore he exalted with such eagerness. And what happened when "all the money", and so all the cash was in the palace of the pharaoh?
(Book of Genesis 47.15.)
"15 When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
16 “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.”
17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock."

And what was then? And then it was even worse. Desperate people offered:
(Book of Genesis 47.19.)
"19 Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.
20 So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s,
21 and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other.
22 However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
23 Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground.
24 But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.”

As we can see, the implementation of the interventionist program of Józef, originally justified by the desire to prevent famine, not only not prevented any defeat, because hunger did occur, but in all likelihood, it caused this hunger and resulted in disastrous consequences in the form of intercepting all movable property and land of free Egyptian peasants so far, turning them into state slaves.

Characteristically, the 20% grain tax was also maintained in relation to slaves. It seems that Józef wanted to provide means of support for the bureaucratic apparatus he created, which remained under his control and was an important instrument of his power. It is therefore not excluded that this tax was also charged during the famine period, constituting an additional instrument of economic pressure.
The biblical author does not mention this, perhaps wanting to hide from us the cruelty that must have accompanied the charging of this tax during the period of widespread famine.

I need to be honest with you. This interpratation is not mine - I read about this somewhere few years ago. It is still in my head - so I decided to share this kind of interpratation with Steemit population.