The answer you’re looking for I believe, is Commerce.
Although the term "bureaucracy" was not coined until the mid 18th century, organized and consistent administrative systems are much older. The development of writing<span> (ca. 3500 BC) and the use of documents was critical to the administration of this system, and the first definitive emergence of bureaucracy is in ancient </span>Sumer<span>, where an emergent class of </span>scribes<span> used </span>clay tablets<span> to administer the harvest and allocate its spoils.</span> Ancient Egypt<span> also had a hereditary class of scribes that administered the </span>civil service<span> bureaucracy.</span>
