The Egyptologist, for instance, is confronted by a fact towards the explanation of which the monuments furnish no help.
This is the curious change that passed over the tenure of land in Egypt during the period of Hyksos rule.

When the Fourteenth dynasty fell, a large part of the soil of Egypt was in the hands of private holders, many of whom were great feudal landowners whose acknowledgment of the royal supremacy was at times little more than nominal.

When, however, the Hyksos were at last driven back to Asia, and Ahmes succeeded in founding the Eighteenth dynasty, these landowners had disappeared.

All the landed estate of the country had passed into the possession of the Pharaoh and the priests, and the old feudal aristocracy had been replaced by a bureaucracy, the members of which owed their power and position to the king.

The history of Joseph accounts for this, and it is the only explanation of the fact which is at present forthcoming.