GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
There exists an extensive literature on slavery. Many of these works are intended for philanthropic purposes, viz. to further the suppression of the African slave-trade, whereas many others contain historical investigations of slavery among ancient or modern nations.
The present volume will not rank among either of these categories, but deal with the general character of slavery as an industrial system. Slavery has played a great part in the social history of mankind. Social life among most of the ancient nations was based upon slavery, and in many colonies it subsisted until far into the 19th century. On the other hand, in the civilized countries of to-day all industrial operations are carried on with free labour. Whence this difference? Why have slavery and serfdom gradually declined in the course of European history, so that at the close of the Middle Ages they had already in a large degree lost their significance? These problems can only be solved if we know the conditions necessary for the success of slavery as an industrial system, and the inverse conditions under which slave labour must give way to free labour. We shall try to find these conditions, or at least some of them.
We shall use the comparative method, collecting facts and inquiring what regularities can be found in these facts, under what general rules they may be included. But before enlarging upon our method we must say a few words concerning a limitation we have put upon our subject.
Our book, as the title shows, contains ethnological researches. We confine ourselves to investigating the conditions which govern the existence or non-existence of slavery among savage tribes, and the materials we make use of are exclusively ethnographical materials, i.e. descriptions of savage tribes.
Ethnology has already made considerable progress, and is taking a conspicuous place among the Mental Sciences. Yet some ethnologists still proceed in a somewhat narrow and one-sided manner. They generally aim at reconstructing the early history of mankind with the help of [[XVI]]ethnographical data. The savages representing primitive man, or at least man in a more primitive state than we can find by direct historical research, they draw inferences from the actual state of savage tribes as to the early state of mankind at large. This kind of study has been very useful, especially in removing narrow views on human development which existed at a time, when the traditions of a few ancient nations were still considered to be the only evidence as to early history. But this should not be the sole, nor even the main object of ethnological investigation. It is sociological laws that we want in the first place. It is certainly interesting to know what changes have taken place in early history; but it is far more important to know on what circumstances the existence of each social phenomenon depends. And for this purpose ethnology can be of considerable use. Among savages social life is much simpler than among civilized men; the factors which govern it are comparatively few, and so the effect of each of them can be traced without much difficulty. We can thus, by comparing the institutions of many savage tribes, find sociological laws, several of which will have a wider application and lead us to a clearer understanding of the conditions which govern the social life of civilized nations. For instance, the study of moral phenomena among savages has already given us a deeper insight into morality at large.
The conclusions we arrive at in this book are of two kinds. Some of them apply to savages only and cannot further our understanding of civilized life. For instance, we shall see that settled tribes are more likely to keep slaves than nomadic tribes; but civilized, and even semi-civilized peoples are hardly ever nomadic. Other conclusions, however, have a more general bearing. Thus we shall find that slavery is not likely to exist in those countries, where all land is held as property. And as this has been the case in Western Europe for some centuries, we discover one of the principal causes, perhaps the main cause, why slavery (and serfdom, which is a mitigated form of slavery), have long since disappeared in these countries.
We do not, however, make any systematic inquiry into the bearing of the laws found by investigating the phenomena of savage life on the study of social life among civilized and semi-civilized nations. Where phenomena of civilized life occur to us which bear a striking resemblance to what we find among savages, we mention them briefly, generally in a note. Only in one case we go farther. Where we find that the relation between land and population is a factor of the utmost importance in shaping the lot of the labouring classes, it is obvious that this factor must have played a great part in the social history of Europe, and therefore we adduce some statements of historians in corroboration of our view. Yet, even here, it is our object to claim attention for this factor that is commonly overlooked, and clear the way for future research, rather [[XVII]]than to give a ready explanation of the decline of serfdom in Western Europe. We are thus justified in making use of only a small part of the literature on this subject.
As we have already said, we proceed by an inductive, comparative method. We first collect ethnographical materials. Then we critically determine the meaning and reliability of the statements of our informants. We thus see where slavery exists, and where it is absent. And finally we inquire what are the causes of the observed phenomena.