In chapter 7.1b on the Oikonomika it was suggested that the second and third aspects of the royal economy represented the interaction between this and the other types of economy in terms of goods and silver that crossed their respective boundaries in either direction. Although the terms εἰσαγώγιμα (eisagōgima) and ἐξαγώγιμα (exagōgima) can indeed denote imports and exports in the modern sense, of a Greek polis for instance, here the meaning is more specific. It concerns the management of the surplus collected by the king from tribute and taxation and the natural resources he controlled. It includes items transported even within a province to and from royal land, treasuries and storehouses.

Fortunately there is a source which can show how the management of surplus was handled in detail at some point in time and place in the Achaemenid empire. This may help to illuminate several Hellenistic-period texts and Seleukid administrative practice.

EVIDENCE FROM THE ACHAEMENID EMPIRE

Surplus, exchange and price in the Persepolis Fortification Texts

It will be recalled (ch. 1.4b) that the Persepolis Fortification Texts of the time of Darius I deal with the movement of commodities to and from storehouses in an administrative area centred on Persepolis, which probably coincided with the later Seleukid satrapy of Persis.