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February 10, 2005

20050208: Econ 113 Lecture: Slavery 1

The Slave Trade:

• Guns
• Slaves
• Sugar/molasses/tobacco/cotton
• Very profitable
• Extraordinarily inhumane

Adam Smith expected slavery to come to a rapid end after 1776; Adam Smith was wrong.

Why slavery should come to an end:

• Inefficient--slave has no incentive
• An incentive-compatible system produces a larger economic pie
• And people can decide on a system better for everyone--a system that's still unequal, but not as brutal and vicious

What maintains slavery?

• Extreme cheapness of slaves--makes vicious discipline credible
• Extreme control--slaves cannot run away
• Extreme monitoring--easy to see if slaves are working hard

Caesar; classical Roman slavery; Arabic slavery; mamelukes

The American South

• Quick end of indentured servitude
• The assumption that everyone black was a slave makes control easy
• Plantation staple crops make monitoring easy?
• Cheapness? That became a problem after 1807

Still slavery persisted; Domar's argument; free land made it impossible to strike the emancipatory bargain--hence the coming of the Civil War

Posted by DeLong at February 10, 2005 12:38 PM