Genesis 47:19

Buy us and our land. Realizing that their lot as Pharaoh’s serfs would be preferable to that of free but starving citizens, they considered this solution advantageous to themselves as well as to the king. A full stomach was a far happier prospect than starvation.

Although no contemporary non-Biblical records have survived to corroborate the Bible account of the famine, the fact remains that the kings of Egypt enjoyed sole possession of all nonecclesiastical properties after the expulsion of the Hyksos, a situation that did not exist before their arrival. Prior to the Hyksos invasion of Egypt a great proportion of the land was owned by the people, being in the hands of large and small landowners. Concerning conditions during the Hyksos period no records exist, but when that period ended and the monuments began to shed light on the existing situation once more, it is found that all lands and practically all the other property of Egypt had become the monopoly of the crown and the priesthood. The best explanation for this radical change in the social structure of the nation is the Biblical record of Joseph’s administrative measures during the seven years of famine.