The slaves are children captured in war[46], their number is small. The slave, who is nearly on a level with the children, is wanted for much the same reason why children are so eagerly desired among most agricultural savage tribes: the larger the family, the more food can be produced; for land is still abundant. Slaves and freemen perform the same kind of work, with the exception perhaps of some domestic occupations, which are more and more left to the slaves.
Gradually the number of slaves increases. The slave-trade greatly furthers the growth of slavery. The keeping of slaves [[439]]is more and more confined to the chiefs and principal men. Where slaves are captured in war it is the leading men who secure most of the spoils; and where slaves are purchased it is only the rich who can give a good price for them. The ruling classes are the great slave-owners, and these men are naturally inclined to leave all the common work to their slaves, reserving for themselves only the noble pursuits of warfare and government. The difference between the slaves and their owners becomes thus greater than it was before. The common people come to distrust and hate the slaves, whom they regard as the tools of the aristocracy. And the differentiating process we have described here is always going on: the more slaves a man owns, the greater his wealth; and the greater a man’s wealth the better will he be able to procure slaves. The common people are continually sinking in the social scale, and in the course of time many of them are reduced to slavery for non-payment of money they have borrowed from the rich.
The further development of slavery can proceed in two different ways.
In some countries, where oil, cotton, and similar products are exported, slavery assumes enormous proportions. The large plantations can best be worked with slaves; and as manufactured goods are imported, slave labour serves not only to feed the master, but to provide him with the luxuries of life; the wants of the slave-owners, and accordingly the possible extent of slavery, become practically unlimited. This slave system, as we have seen, exists in some parts of the West Coast of Africa, and bears a close resemblance to that which till far into the 19th century was carried on in the Southern States of North America.
Where cereals are grown and agricultural produce is not exported on a very large scale, the course of things is different. An increase of slaves above a certain number is of little use to the owner. When he has slaves enough to provide him with a large quantity of food and other necessaries for the use of himself and his family and personal servants, he does not want more slaves. The agricultural produce they could furnish would not be worth the pains of supervising them. [[440]]The slaves (except a few who are kept for domestic services) are soon allowed to live rather independently, bound only to provide fixed quantities of agricultural produce and perform occasional services. And when the use of money becomes general, these slaves often contract with their masters to pay a yearly tribute in money instead of the services and payments in kind. The slaves become serfs. And gradually the whole of the lower orders are merged in this servile class. Ancient slaves, members of subjected communities, helpless persons who seek the protection of a powerful chief, all become the subjects and dependents of the ruling nobles. Such was the social system of the early Middle Ages, that in the course of time was entirely overturned through the progress of manufactures and commerce and the gradual appropriation of the whole of the land[47]. [[441]]
[1] In the first edition we had spoken of negative internal causes. Dr. Tönnies, in his review, rightly remarks that this expression is not quite correct. [↑]
[2] Our “external causes” correspond with what has sometimes been called condiciones, as opposed to causae proper. [↑]
[3] Viz. if they have no opportunity to emigrate to countries with open resources. [↑]
[4] Viz. generally speaking. Peculiar circumstances (e.g. a rapid development of industry) may bring about a temporary scarcity of labour. But the growth of population in most cases will soon bring this state of things to an end. [↑]