Achaemenians, They were one of the royal dynasties in the pre-Islam era. Darius I، The third Achaemenid king He used many economic policies during his rule. Many of these policies were considered progressive and innovative in the world of that day. Also, the weaknesses of these policies in controlling inflation and keeping people's purchasing power high were effective in the decline of the Achaemenids..
Economic policy of Achaemenid rulers
During the reign of Darius, the Achaemenid empire was divided into twenty states or satrapies, and each state was headed by a ruler.. Also, in order to develop trade and establish communication between the states and also to achieve strategic goals, large roads were built, among which we can mention the Shahi road that connected the city of Ephesus to Susa.. This road passed through Tigris and Euphrates and its length is close to 2400 It was kilometers. Another road connected Babylon to India. Darius the Achaemenid also created a vast spy network that monitored the activities of satraps and military commanders.. In my opinion: "Among the ancient kings, we find few rulers who understood as well as Darius that the prosperity of a nation must be based on a healthy economy."
Measurement units
Based on this logical thought, he tried as much as possible to have new weights and measures common throughout the empire instead of the various measures and weights of the landlords.. To harmonize the weights, he established a new weight called Kershe and a new measure called Shah's measure. From the weights found in the treasures of Persepolis, Kerman and other places, it is clear that the weights were in the shape of a small pyramid, one of which weighed less than 22 A pound means one hundred and twenty kershes. Weights, apparently, soon spread throughout the country. Amstead writes: "It is interesting that in that other kingdom in "Elphantine" on the southern border of Egypt, the Jewish mercenary soldiers paid their loan from the stone. (weight) They paid the king. The smallest weight was Halor or Heba. Ten halvers were one quarter, four quarters were one figure, and ten figures were one karsheh (A figure is roughly equivalent to a dollar.)
Dariush's coins were made of pure gold and were called Darik after his name. Minting of gold coins was for the emperor, and city officials could mint silver coins to pay expenses. Karshah or Kersheh was both a unit of money and a unit of weight, and each gold coin was equivalent 30 The silver coin had value, and one silver coin was equal to twenty copper coins. The value of the muskets decreased with the passage of time; So that if in the old days, a worker's monthly salary was one "shekel", with this means he could provide himself with the necessities of life, but in the recent periods of the Achaemenid rule, the value of money had decreased and the purchasing power of the lower classes of society decreased even more. had found. Until now, there has not been enough research on the way of production, i.e., the tools that people used in those days to produce their necessities, such as food, clothing, housing, fuel, and other necessities of life; What is certain is that the production forces and work tools were primitive in this hard time, and things like shovels, pickaxes, and hoes were used in agricultural production activities..
