PREMODERN ECONOMICS

One might say that economy is just the study of wealth in its various forms but before the development of a fully monetary economy, economics occupied a role in every culture and society at all levels. The three questions which have always been the focus and vital for any human society to meet the needs of the people are, what should be produced? how should it be produced? and how it must be distributed?

Different societies tend to answer these questions in different ways .The factor of production and distribution was fairly complex and detailed right from the time of the “primitives”, Their main source of produce was mainly through hunting and gathering. Although this process varied from tribe to tribe, they used division of labour as a collective enterprise. The process of distribution came from claims and claims came from customs with every tribe, society and culture having different customs and beliefs.

In some tribes the women were responsible for what must be produced as they were considered to have a better knowledge of nature.

The Egyptian society produced the most magnificent man made structures that have been seen in history. The Egyptican tombs and pyramids are considered architectural wonders and undoubtedly it was no child's play to build these remarkable structures with the highly complex patterns, enormous amount of labour and tremendous knowledge applied. produced these structures as a sign of respect to their pharaohs. They were also able to build such a humongous structure due to the presence of the Nile river surrounding it .

Even the village community differs from the present economic situation, no one starves with everyone getting their share. There is no unemployment and the modern pressure of attaining a job does not exist in this kind of a society. Everyone has a claim over the social product.

In indian society, production was organised through caste which was hierarchical. Different occupations decided different castes. The hierarchy was not based upon wealth but rather purity, all occupations related to nature were considered impure. A person or their prodigy belonging to a particular caste had restrictions to change their occupation even in the further future where the distribution was related to hierarchy.

Thus how different societies answer these questions is just not based upon economic survival but is closely connected to their understanding of themselves and the cosmos. Right from the earliest and by far the most historically numerous economic system of the “primitive” society, for which tradition served as the central means of bestowing order to present date - beliefs, customs, traditions and geological location plays a major role in influencing the factor of production and distribution .