The general structure of the administration took the form of a pyramid with the king at its apex . The king was theoretically in charge of everything . In practice , however , he only dealt directly with military and religious affairs . Most of time , he acted through the vizier who appears to have first emerged in the Second Dynasty . The title was given by
Sneferu
to various royal princes: Nefermaat , his son Hemiunu , Kawab and others . The vizier was in a sense the chief executive , with authority in practically all areas of government . His titles included 'Chief of all Royal Works' , 'Chief of the House of Weaponry' , 'Chief of the Chambers of the King's Adornment' , 'Royal Chancellor of Lower
Egypt.
, and he was also the 'Chief Judge' (as Weni's intervention in the harem affairs of
Pepy I
demonstrates) but he did not necessarily deal with all legal matters .
The emergence of the office of vizier coincided with the appearance of the 'Chancellor of the god' , a trusted person chosen directly by the king to undertake a specific task: going on an expedition to the mines or quarries , leading trading ships to foreign lands , or managing a
particular royal monopoly . In order to fulfill his task , the 'Chancellor' was provided with a troop or fleet of which he was the general or admiral .
Undoubtedly , it was a sign of the weakening of central power and the increasing demands of the administration that
Pepy II
split the role of vizier into two separate offices dealing with Upper and Lower Egypt . The vizier controlled the four main parts of the central administration , as well as the provincial administration (which was linked with the central authority by means of the 'Chiefs of Missions') . The first department of the central administration was the 'Treasury' , or more correctly the 'Double Granary' which was overseen by a 'Chief of the Double Granary' who operated under orders from the vizier . The treasury was in charge of economy as a whole , but it was particularly concerned with the collection of taxes . Taxes were derived essentially from the second major department , namely Agriculture . The department of agriculture was subdivided into two sections . The first section was concerned with the breeding and fattening of livestock , and was further subdivided into two 'Houses' , each delegated to sub-director and scribal assistants . The second section of Agriculture was concerned with actual cultivation and lands recovered from the inundation ,
and consisted of the 'Care of the Fields' , over which the 'Chief of Fields' presided , assisted by the 'Scribes of the Fields' .
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